Alcohol industry and governmental revenue from young Australians.

Conclusions Alcohol consumption by young Australians is prevalent, and young Australian drinkers consume alcohol in substantial amounts. The industry and taxation revenue from young drinkers is also considerable. It would be in the public interest to divert some of this revenue towards health initiatives to reduce drinking by young people, especially given the high societal costs of alcohol consumption.What is known about the topic? Australian adolescents aged 12-17 years consume substantial amounts of alcohol, and substantial amounts of revenue are generated from alcohol sales to them.What does this paper add? This paper provides recent estimates of alcohol consumption and revenue generated by Australian adolescents, and extends estimates to young adults aged 18-25 years.What are the implications for practitioners? A substantial proportion of Australian young people consume alcohol. The sales and taxation revenue generated from young people's drinking is substantial at A$4.8 billion in 2010 and is higher in real terms than estimates from previous studies. Some of the alcohol taxation revenue could be diverted to health promotion and education for young people, because the costs of alcohol consumption in terms of health outcomes and productivity losses for these age groups are expected to be especially high. PMID: 26681066 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Australian Health Review - Category: Hospital Management Authors: Tags: Aust Health Rev Source Type: research