I was amazed to hear how ill-informed (some?) Americans are about major health issues. Specifically, how many folks don’t know alcohol can cause cancer. In fact, alcohol accounts for about 5.5 percent of all new cancer cases…
What they asked
Researchers at University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center data-mined alcohol-specific infor-mation from the US 2024 Health Information National Trends Survey.
Among the nearly 7,000 participants investigated, aged 18 and older (mean age 48), 48.4 percent were female, 60.7 percent identified as white, 17.5 percent as Hispanic, and 11 percent as Black. Over half reported drinking alcohol within the past month, and almost 10 pecent had a personal history of cancer.
Participants had been asked, in the source survey: “In your opinion, how does drinking alcohol affect the risk of getting cancer?” They could choose from four responses: “Decreases the risk of cancer,” “Has no effect on the risk of cancer,” “Increases risk of cancer,” and “Don’t know.”
What they found
The findings, published October 30 in JAMA Oncology, reveal that only 37.1 percent of adults recog-nized that drinking alcohol raises cancer risk, while 1 percent believed it actually lowers it.
Despite decades of scientific evidence, more than half of American adults (52.9%) were unaware that alcohol affects cancer risk.
The study also noted that individuals who had consumed alcohol recently, or who thought cancer was not fatal or preventable, were more likely to say that alcohol has no influence on cancer risk.
The takeaway
Study report lead author Sanjay Shete, professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and Betty B. Marcus Chair in Cancer Prevention, called the results ‘alarming’.
“It’s concerning that people who drink alcohol are the ones most likely to believe it has no effect on cancer risk,” Shete said. “Given people’s beliefs play a critical role in whether they choose healthier behaviors, we need to work on correcting these misperceptions, which could be essential to reducing the growing burden of alcohol-related cancers.”
My take
Yes, the survey results are alarming. First, because alcohol not only increases the risk of cancer, but also contributes to, or directly causes a whole laundry list of other serious health issues.
But there’s also the cost of treating alcohol-related health issues. The National Institutes of Health estimates the total annual economic burden at around $249 billion (2019). That’s $807 per American citizen annually . Or, expressed another way, each drink costs society $2.05 in economic impact…
~ Maggie J.