We used a prevalence based approach to estimate the annual social costs of alcohol disease in Austria in 2011. Taking relative risks (RR) of alcohol-related diseases from international literature, we calculated alcohol-attributable fractions (SAF) for the Austrian population. Annual direct medical costs (public health expenditures) and direct non-medical costs (sick leave and long-term care allowances, invalidity pensions) were estimated at 374 Mio. and 38 Mio. EUR, resp. In addition, we derived annual indirect costs due to lost productivity from premature death and increased sick leaves. These costs were offset against the social benefits of alcohol, i.e. alcohol tax revenues and reduced old pension payments. We estimated the annual net costs of the alcohol disease in Austria at 738 Mio. EUR.
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