Adjunct Professor, Royal Roads University; CEO/Director, Mind Science Consultants Inc., Victoria, BC.
Healthc Policy. 2021 May;16(4):17-24. doi: 10.12927/hcpol.2021.26502.
Increased alcohol consumption among Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic will impact our health systems in the short and longer term, through increased hospitalizations due to alcohol-related illness, addiction, violence and accidents. The increased stress due to involuntary unemployment, confinement and boredom during the pandemic has led to an escalation in alcohol use. It is imperative that policy makers recognize and address the inherently conflicting roles of provincial/territorial governments as regulators/retailers of alcohol and funders of healthcare and prioritize the development and implementation of an evidence-based framework to mitigate the increased population health risks of alcohol-related harms.
在 COVID-19 大流行期间,加拿大的酒精消费增加,这将在短期和长期内影响我们的医疗系统,因为与酒精相关的疾病、成瘾、暴力和事故导致住院人数增加。大流行期间非自愿失业、禁闭和无聊导致的压力增加,导致酒精使用量上升。政策制定者必须认识到并解决省级/地区政府作为酒精监管者/零售商以及医疗保健资金提供者之间固有的冲突角色,并优先制定和实施基于证据的框架,以减轻与酒精相关的伤害对人口健康的增加风险。