Alcohol in France: room for improvement
Menée à l'aide de données françaises portant sur 23 999 425 personnes, cette étude analyse l'effet d'une cure de désintoxication ou d'une abstinence alcoolique sur le risque de cancer en fonction du sexe
Based on an analysis of the French National Hospital Discharge database, Michaël Schwarzinger and colleagues show in their study in The Lancet Public Health that, in a population of more than 865 000 individuals with alcohol dependence, alcohol rehabilitation treatment or a history of abstinence was associated with lower risks of alcohol-associated cancers than no rehabilitation treatment nor abstinence. This is an important result from a country with a notoriously high level of alcohol consumption. In 2022, an average of 165 g of pure alcohol per week per inhabitant aged 15 years and older was sold in France, with wine representing 52% of these sales, beer 25%, spirits 21%, and other alcoholic beverages (ciders, port, etc) less than 2%. This average is much larger than the upper limit of reasonable consumption recommended by the health authorities (ie, 100 g of pure alcohol per week). The fraction of cancers attributable to alcohol drinking in France is one of the highest in western Europe, both in the male and in the female population.