Alcohol Dependency as Public Health Issue - Social Determinants

Running head: SOCIAL DETERMINANTS
ALCOHOL DEPENDENCY AS PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1SOCIAL DETERMINANTS
Chosen health issue Associated health problems
and descriptions
List of public health
agencies
The chosen topic for this
assessment is alcohol
dependency and alcohol abuse
in the youth of America
As per the reports of National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism, 86.4% people
in USA consume alcohol in
their lifetime and 26.9%
people are binge drinkers.
Further, the report also
mentioned that more than 15.1
million people were suffering
from alcohol however, only
6.7% people within this
population has received
treatment and hence, leads to
more than 88,000 death every
year due to alcohol
dependency (National Institute
on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism, 2018).
The number of health related
issues arises from heavy
alcohol consumption or binge
drinking. These can range
from cirrhosis of liver to
cancer, cardiovascular disease
and anemia.
Liver cirrhosis- on heavy
alcohol consumption, the liver
cells are replaced by scars that
stops the liver from working
properly. This physiological
change starts from fatty lever
that further creates alcohol
hepatitis and finally alcohol
cirrhosis (Singal et al., 2012).
Cardiovascular diseases- it is
evident that due to heavy
drinking or binge drinking, the
platelets clump together and
forms clusters that leads to
heart attack. Further, it has
also seen that due to heavy
drinking, cardiomyopathy
related condition arises that
weakens the heart muscles and
disrupts the heartbeat rhythm
(Danielsson et al., 2012).
Anemia- from the researchers
conducted by Danielsson et al.
(2012), it has been observed
that due to heavy drinking and
binge drinking, the number of
red blood cells decreases
causing fatigue and breathing
issues.
Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA)
US Department of Health and
Human Services
National Institute on Health
National Institute on Drug
Abuse