The Cost of Harmful Alcohol Use in South Africa: A Reply to Murray and Barr (2022)
Summary
Not only was ‘The cost of harmful alcohol use in South Africa: A commentary’ by Murray and Barr in the March issue of SAMJ oddly timed, appearing some 8 years after the original article, but its content was also highly questionable. The commentary’s major flaws included the incorrect selection and inappropriate application of methods, combined with confused conceptual arguments. This led to the authors’ erroneous conclusion that the costs of alcohol harms had been substantially overestimated in the original study.
In this article the authors of the original research respond, not only to the shortcomings of Murray and Barr’s analysis and to address any misconceptions that may arise, but also to alert the SAMJ’s readership to undeclared conflicts of interest that may have influenced their findings.