In a new study from the University of Virginia, researchers found that most American adults don’t know that alcohol boosts cancer risk, but a majority support steps to increase awareness of the link.
Alcohol has been found to increase the risk of seven cancers, including breast, colon and mouth cancer. Alcohol-related cancers caused about 378,000 deaths worldwide in 2016.
In the study, the team surveyed nearly 3,900 Americans.
They found only 20% were aware that wine increases cancer risk; 25% knew beer did so; and 31% knew that liquor increased cancer risk.
In all, 65% of respondents supported warning labels on alcohol, 64% were in favor of drinking guidelines and 34% backed a ban on outdoor alcohol advertising.
Such measures were more likely to have the support of people who were aware that alcohol increased cancer risk than respondents who were unaware of the link, thought drinking reduced cancer risk, and were heavy drinkers.
Besides breast, colon and mouth cancers, alcohol use has also been linked to cancers of the throat, voice box, esophagus and liver, according to the American Cancer Society.
The team says it is important that people are made fully aware of the potential harms of alcohol so that they may make informed decisions about alcohol consumption.
An important next step in this research will be to determine what types of messages are able to best convey information about alcohol’s harms as they relate to cancer.
By developing messaging about the potential harms of alcohol, researchers may be able to begin to address an important cancer risk factor.
If you care about cancer risk, please read studies that eating peanut too much may increase risk of cancer spread, and yogurt and high-fiber diet may cut lung cancer risk.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about vitamin that could prevent muscle damage after heart attack, and results showing that vitamin D can be cheap treatments for COVID-19.
The study is published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and was conducted by Kara Wiseman et al.
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