PRICING POLICIES, ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONSUMPTION AND MORTALITY FROM WERNICKE'S ENCEPHALOPATHY IN BRAZIL

Abstract

This article sought to correlate rates of harmful alcohol use with the taxation of alcoholic beverages and describe mortality from Wernicke's encephalopathy in Brazil from 2019 to 2020. This is an ecological study using data from the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), the State Treasury Department (State Treasury), and DATASUS (National Health Surveillance Agency). The correlation coefficient between ICMS (Brazilian State Tax on Goods and Services) rates and the percentage of people aged 18 or older who abuse alcohol was calculated. Cases of Wernicke's encephalopathy from 2019 and 2020 were collected, in the 15-80 age group, with variables including sex, education level, and race/ethnicity. The results indicate that the highest ICMS tax was levied in the North Region, and the lowest percentage of people aged 18 or older with alcohol abuse was in the South Region. Mortality from Wernicke's encephalopathy was higher among males, those with 4-7 years of schooling, and those of mixed race in most regions. The results indicate that there is no statistically significant correlation between the ICMS tax rate and alcohol abuse, and mortality from Wernicke's encephalopathy constitutes a health problem that must be addressed.