Skip Navigation



Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access published online on November 18, 2005
Alcohol and Alcoholism, doi:10.1093/alcalc/agh238
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
41/1/99    most recent
agh238v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by RAJENDRAM, R.
Right arrow Articles by PREEDY, V. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by RAJENDRAM, R.
Right arrow Articles by PREEDY, V. R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Medical Council on Alcohol. All rights reserved
Received July 12, 2005
Revised September 19, 2005
Accepted October 22, 2005

Article

WORLDWIDE ALCOHOL-RELATED RESEARCH AND THE DISEASE BURDEN

R. RAJENDRAM 1, G. LEWISON 2 *, and V. R. PREEDY 1

1 Nutritional Sciences Research Division, School of Life Sciences, King's College London, Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 8WA, UK
2 Department of Information Science, City University, London EC1V 0HB, UK

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
G. LEWISON, E-mail: g.lewison{at}soi.city.ac.uk


  Abstract

Aims: The purpose of this study was to determine the international commitment to alcohol-related research relative to its global burden of disease, which is 4% of disability adjusted life years (DALYs). Methods: The worldwide literature indexed in the Science Citation Index® and the Social Sciences Citation Index® during 1992-2003 was analysed using advanced bibliometric techniques. Results: Biomedical research and the global disease burden due to alcohol both increased during 1992-2003, whilst the number of papers from alcohol-related research remained static and declined to <0.7% of all biomedical research literature. Nearly 58% of all alcohol-related research papers were from Canada and the United States, 30% from Western Europe, and 10% from Australia, New Zealand, or Japan. However, these regions suffer only 13% of the global burden of disease due to alcohol; meanwhile, the rest of the world contributed only 8% of the total research whilst suffering from 87% of the disease burden. The estimated annual expenditure on alcohol-related research in 2001 was $730 million, or about $12 per DALY due to alcohol. Conclusions: The global commitment to alcohol-related research is only one-sixth of that warranted by the burden of disease due to alcohol. Most such research is conducted in the developed world but is still less than that appropriate to the regional burden of disease. There is a need for more interest in alcohol-related research in the developing world, particularly in Latin America and Eastern Europe in view of their high burden of disease due to alcohol.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.