In Korea, since drinking alcohol in mealtime or sacrificial rites has been recognized as culture, alcohol problem has been held in low account. Previous studies showed that Korean economic cost caused by alcohol and alcohol dependency rate were higher than other developed countries. However, discussions and studies about indicators and statistics regarding alcohol are insufficient while alcohol related national reports have been published among the developed countries. This study offers the comprehensive analysis of alcohol indicators and statistics in major foreign countries, and international organizations(eg. OECD, WHO) by reviewing national or international reports and related web-sites. Ultimately it drives policy suggestions for Korea.
First of all, in producing the indicators and statistics of alcohol, the foreign countries have various data source despite of duplicating in cost-efficiency aspect. Since Korea has very restricted data source for alcohol statistics especially in quantity, imperfect standardization, and difficulty of local data production. While indicators and statistics about attitude and knowledge of drinking alcohol are found in the many countries' national reports, it is necessary to develop these indicators and producing mechanism adjustable to Korea. Korea has presented the alcohol consumption of adult to international organizations, but it doesn't contain the unofficial alcohol consumption. It is necessary to develop the mechanism of producing statistics for unofficial alcohol consumption. Developed countries and international organizations emphasize the cost of alcohol data. Since Korea has no national statistics about that, consistent support to relating researches.