Summary

• There is a relationship between a society’s socioeconomic conditions (i.e. levels of income, education, unemployment, and job insecurity) and health outcomes.
• Economic crises can affect population health outcomes in several ways, including impacting health behaviours such as alcohol consumption.
• Evidence indicates that population-level alcohol consumption decreases during economic crises, but with increases in high-risk alcohol use seen among some subgroups.
• Suffering a more severe economic loss, being a man, being unemployed, and being less well educated may increase the likelihood of engaging in more/higher-risk drinking during an economic crisis.
• Mechanisms for increasing/decreasing alcohol consumption include psychological distress and tighter budget constraints.
• Targeted support for people experiencing unemployment, and population-wide measures to improve access to treatment and support, restrict marketing, and raise the prices of the cheapest alcohol could reduce levels of alcohol harm.