Australia Releases Revised Guidelines for Reducing Alcohol- Associated Health Risks

Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council has released a revised edition of Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol, which aims to establish the evidence base for future policy and patient education regarding alcohol-associated health risks. Changes from the last edition, published in 2001, include:

• introducing the concept of progressively increasing risk of harm with the amount of alcohol consumed rather than specifying “risky” and “high-risk” levels of drinking;

• detailed separate guidelines for adults, children, teens, and pregnant or breastfeeding women;

• looking beyond immediate risk of injury and cumulative risk of chronic disease to estimating overall risk of alcohol-related harm over a lifetime; and

• providing updated advice for patients on lowering their risk of harm.

The publication is available for download at www.nhmrc.gov.