ICCPUD Study on Alcohol Intake and Health
The ICCPUD is convening a Technical Review Subcommittee (Subcommittee) on Alcohol Intake and Health. The Subcommittee will serve as an ongoing subcommittee of the ICCPUD to provide leadership, oversight, and consultation related to the review of current scientific evidence on the relationship between alcohol intake and related health outcomes. The Subcommittee comprises ICCPUD member agency representatives who are responsible for guiding and setting policies or have scientific expertise in alcohol intake and health research. The Subcommittee includes representatives from the following agencies:
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health
- Agency for Health Care Research and Quality
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Executive Office of the President, Office of National Drug Control Policy
- Indian Health Service
- National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute
- National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
The ICCPUD Subcommittee will review all available literature, synthesize the data and conclusions from the Scientific Review Panel. The Subcommittee will assess the scientific evidence provided by the SRP in conjunction with the NASEM study findings related to health effects of alcohol intake among adults and provide a synthesis of the data and summarize the science for the 2025 Report to Congress. This information will also be provided to HHS and USDA for consideration during the development of the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Scientific Review Panel
As part of its regular activity, ICCPUD is supporting a Scientific Review Panel (SRP), comprised of external scientific experts, that will analyze the current scientific evidence on youth and adult alcohol intake and health risks and provide outcomes and findings to the Subcommittee.
The alcohol intake and health study will be conducted by experts in disease prevention and public health and include scientists from diverse backgrounds representing a range of career levels including mid-career researchers. The Subcommittee has expertise on alcohol consumption in the following areas:
- Public health strategies related to alcohol policies, programs, and practices
- Alcohol epidemiology
- Health effects of alcohol
- Dietary guidance policy
- Cancer epidemiology
- Data quality and analysis
- Systematic reviews
- Biostatistics
Brief biographies and financial disclosures of the SRP members can be found below.
A methodology will be developed for performing a series of studies assessing the relationship between alcohol intake and related health conditions; these studies will be completed by leading experts with experience conducting meta-analyses, relative risk estimates, and systematic reviews related to alcohol intake and health. The studies will assess the current, best, and most applicable scientific evidence on the relationship between consumption of alcohol and health outcomes in the following areas:
- Chronic alcohol use and the development of health conditions
- Estimates on the relationship between alcohol use and injury risk
- Lifetime risks of alcohol-attributable mortality and morbidity by alcohol intake
- Burden of disease in the United States related to alcohol intake and health
The SRP will conduct a series of studies on alcohol intake and health, providing the best available science to the Subcommittee on the implications of alcohol intake and health, including on the relationship between chronic alcohol use and health conditions, the relationship between alcohol use and injury risk, lifetime risks of alcohol-attributable mortality and morbidity, and U.S. burden of disease related to alcohol intake and health. The SRP will provide all study findings related to alcohol use and health to the Subcommittee.
Exhibit 1 graphically displays the organizational structure and roles of the ICCPUD, Subcommittee, and SRP.
Exhibit 1: Organizational Structure of the Alcohol Intake and Health Review Process
Information Requested Through Public Comment
Public comment is intended to ensure the broadest evidence base and available data are considered in this study and that the methodology is scientifically rigorous.
HHS invites comment from a range of interested parties, including but not limited to:
- State, tribal, US territories, and local governments
- Medical, behavioural, and social science researchers
- Public health and healthcare professionals
- Patient advocacy groups focused on alcohol and other substance use
- Substance use prevention and treatment organizations
- Community organizations and other not-for-profit organizations
- Individuals with lived experience of alcohol intake and health
- Alcohol beverage industry trade associations and companies
When providing public comment, please consider the following questions:
- Are the topic areas defined in the methodology sufficient for understanding the relationship between alcohol intake and health?
- Is the methodology clear and transparent?
- Are the methods proposed scientifically valid?
- Are the risks of bias identified?
- Are strategies to minimize bias included?
- Are there other methodological approaches that should be considered to estimate the risk of alcohol consumption on specific health outcomes?
- Are the methods proposed subject to major limitations? If so, what strategies could be employed to minimize these limitations?
- Are there additional data sources that should be considered and/or included for a comprehensive understanding of the burden of alcohol-related diseases?
- Are there specific scientific papers or research that should be included in the assessment of risk? or concerns regarding the overall methodology outlined in the document?
The AIH study’s scientific protocol and methodology can be found below.
Exhibit 2: Alcohol Intake and Health Study Timeline
Background
The ICCPUD first began its work in looking at factors affecting underage alcohol use including the relationship between alcohol consumption and health among youth and adults in December 2021 as part of the ICCPUD operational and data committee meetings. This work was included as part of the 2021 ICCPUD Comprehensive Plan. In February of 2022, two members of the ICCPUD (the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) representative and the US Department of Agriculture representative) requested that the ICCPUD undertake a study on alcohol consumption and health to provide greater input on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans related to alcohol. In April 2022, this request was approved, and the ICCPUD, operating on behalf of the HHS Secretary, proceeded to establish a Technical Review Subcommittee to begin the work to conduct the studies and identify leading experts in alcohol.
It is important to note that HHS and USDA have a long history of engaging Federal interagency workgroups to conduct scientific reviews and provide information to inform the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The request to the ICCPUD is not unique. Examples of separate processes and subcommittees that have been used in forming recommendations for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans in the past, include, but are not limited to:
