ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Substance Use Disorders and Behavioral Addictions
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1616343
This article is part of the Research TopicPotential Therapeutic Targets in Alcohol Use Disorder: Insights from Recent Preclinical StudiesView all articles
Global Trends in the Burden of Alcohol Use Disorders in the working-age population from 1990 to 2021 and Projections for the Next 20 Years
Provisionally accepted
- 1West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, Chengdu, China
- 2West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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A global analysis of alcohol use disorder (AUD) burden among working-age populations (15-64 years) from 1990 to 2021 revealed substantial yet uneven progress. Age-standardized rates showed significant declines in incidence (ASIR: EAPC=-0.85), mortality (ASMR: EAPC=-1.98), and disability-adjusted life years (ASDR: EAPC=-1.39). Persistent geographical disparities emerged, with medium-to-high SDI regions experiencing disproportionately higher burdens, particularly in Eastern Europe. Mongolia recorded the world's highest disease burden in 2021, with a prevalence of 7,087.13 per 100,000 population and leading DALY/mortality rates. Joinpoint regression identified critical epidemiological transition points, while Bayesian modeling projects global age-standardized prevalence (ASPR) and ASDR to reach 766.67 and 205.88 per 100,000 respectively by 2044. Despite three decades of overall decline, entrenched disparities across gender, age cohorts, and SDI strata continue to drive preventable health losses. These findings, drawn from GBD 2021 data across 204 nations, highlight the urgent need for targeted implementation of the WHO Global Alcohol Action Plan 2022-2030. Prioritizing evidence-based interventions for workforce populations and addressing structural health inequities emerge as critical pathways for sustainable AUD burden reduction.
Keywords: Global burden of disease, projections, alcohol use disorders (AUD), Working-age population, Global trends
Received: 25 Apr 2025; Accepted: 14 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cui, Liu, Ji, Han and Cheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yongzhong Cheng, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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