With regard to the disease categories, for deaths the detrimental burden from alcohol is greatest for cancer followed by liver cirrhosis. For DALYS, the alcohol-related detrimental burden was highest for liver cirrhosis followed by cancer. With respect to different regions of the world: the impact of alcohol clearly is most pronounced in countries of the former Soviet Union, which is no surprise given the volume and patterns of drinking in this part of the world (see Table 2; [36;37]. Otherwise there is a gradient among low and mid income countries: the higher the gross-domestic product of a region, i.e., the wealthier the countries, the more pronounced the effect of alcohol (see Table 2). However, for high income countries, the effect of alcohol on NCD is detrimental for men, and slightly beneficial for women, because of the beneficial effect of light to moderate consumption on ischaemic disease and diabetes (see above).
