Alcohol use is a serious social problem in the Czech Republic (CZ) as local alcohol consumption is among the highest in the world. Thus, the objective was to assess the societal cost of alcohol consumption in CZ in 2016.

In order to quantify all costs that are associated with alcohol use, they were classified into two major classes, i) direct and ii) indirect (mainly productivity losses). In each of these categories, we identified main cost items and consequently searched for and collected local data from public sources. In case publicly available data were missing, we either requested non-public data sources or obtained estimates from published global peer-reviewed studies. We used one of two standard approaches to the cost estimation (“top-down” or “bottom-up”), considering the nature of data sources. Indirect costs of alcohol consumption were estimated using human capital approach.

The total societal cost of alcohol consumption was calculated to be €2,203 million in 2016, i.e. 1.2% gross domestic product (GDP). Productivity loss (absenteeism, presenteeism) at the workplace was estimated to €948 million, reflecting 42.9% of the overall costs. Health-related costs attributable to alcohol were calculated to €500 million, driven mainly by liver disease and alcohol dependence syndrome but also by high blood pressure or breast cancer. Other significant costs were generated by premature deaths (€257 million), law enforcement (€246 million) and traffic accidents (€170 million). Other cost items included were fire losses (€38 million), prevention (€29 million) or injuries (€10 million).

Alcohol consumption in CZ constitutes a significant burden to the whole society as the overall costs in 2016 were estimated to €2,203 million (1.2% GDP) which is in line with other published studies. Importantly, the study might serve as solid evidence for health policy making and contribute to the public discussion about the harmfulness of addictive substances.