Alcohol consumption can be recorded through production, export, import, and sales/taxation data. However alcohol can also be produced and consumed outside of governmental control, and remain unrecorded. In some cases, unrecorded APC represents an important proportion of a country's alcohol consumption, so it is vital to take this factor into account, in addition to recorded APC, when investigating a country's level of alcohol consumption.
Definition:
Unrecorded APC is defined as the unrecorded amount of alcohol consumed per adult (15+ years) in litres of pure alcohol. Unrecorded consumption refers to alcohol which is not taxed and is outside the usual system of governmental control, such as home or informally produced alcohol (legal or illegal), smuggled alcohol, surrogate alcohol (which is alcohol not intended for human consumption), or alcohol obtained through cross-border shopping (which is recorded in a different jurisdiction). Numerator: The amount of unrecorded alcohol consumed per adult (15+ years) during a calendar year, in litres of pure alcohol. Denominator: Midyear resident population (15+ years) for the same calendar year, UN World Population Prospects, medium variant.
Method of measurement
The first priority in the decision tree is given to nationally representative empirical data; these are often general population surveys in countries where alcohol is legal. Second are specific other empirical investigations, and third is expert opinion.
Method of estimation:
Unrecorded alcohol consumption was estimated as a percentage of total alcohol consumption. Country–level proportions of unrecorded alcohol consumption were estimated using a regression analysis. Estimates of unrecorded alcohol consumption were obtained from four sources: expert judgements from a WHO survey of experts; a WHO and CAMH nominal expert group Delphi survey assessing the proportion of unrecorded alcohol consumption in 34 WHO Member States where unrecorded APC was relatively large [Rehm et al., 2016; Probst et al., 2018]; a second WHO and CAMH nominal expert group Delphi survey of 129 experts from 42 WHO Member States; and the STEPwise approach to surveillance (STEPS) surveys [World Health Organization, 2017].
Previously, in the Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health 2014, survey questions on consumption of unrecorded alcohol were converted into estimates per year of unrecorded APC. Usually surveys underestimate consumption. However, in countries where survey based estimates exceeded the recorded consumption, unrecorded was calculated as total consumption estimated from survey minus recorded APC. In some countries, unrecorded is estimated based on confiscated alcohol confiscated by customs or police.
Method of estimation of global and regional aggregates:
Regional estimates are derived from population weighted averages of countries with data on unrecorded APC.
Preferred data sources:
Special studies
Unit of Measure:
Litres of pure alcohol per person per year
Expected frequency of data dissemination:
Periodic
Expected frequency of data collection:
Periodic
Comments:
Preferred data sources: Representative surveys, specific empirical investigations, expert opinion. Other possible data sources: Indirect estimation based on alcohol poisoning or other injury indicators.
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