New research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that increased drinking during the pandemic is having a real impact on our collective mortality. The study found that nearly 500 deaths every day between 2020 and 2021 may be attributable to excessive drinking, significantly higher than the number of deaths five years ago.
Alcohol-related deaths in the United States has been rising There was a time, even before covid-19 arrived in early 2020. But the pandemic has certainly made things worse.Past research has established Deaths and injuries caused entirely by alcohol, such as acute alcohol poisoning, have increased dramatically since 2020. But the authors of the latest study say there is no clear data yet on recent trends in all alcohol-related deaths, including those caused in part by alcohol. These types of deaths can include injuries and some forms of cancer.
The authors analyzed U.S. mortality data from three periods: 2016 to 2017, 2018 to 2019, and 2020 to 2021.They focused on deaths from underlying acute and chronic conditions that may be alcohol-related, based on CDC Research. For each condition (58 in total), the CDC estimated the proportion of deaths attributable to alcohol.
The authors found that from 2016 to 2017, an average of about 137,927 people died each year due to excessive drinking, but from 2020 to 2021, this number has risen to 178,307, or about 488 deaths per day. While these deaths did rise from 2016 to 2018, the relative increase early in the pandemic was much larger, about 23% higher than in 2018. Even taking age into account, the annual alcohol-related death rate still increased from 38 to 48 deaths per 100,000 people between 2016 and 2021.
Historically, men are more likely to die from alcohol than women, and this has continued in 2021, with 119,606 men dying and 58,701 women dying. But deaths among women have actually risen faster in recent years, up 35% since 2016, compared with 27% among men.
The CDC’s findings are detailed in a paper publish Thursday at Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Covid-19 has become a significantly smaller public health threat in recent years, thanks in large part to vaccinations (although it remains hurt and kill More people than the flu or any other infectious disease in the United States). The social distancing policies that helped define the early years of the pandemic are long gone. But these early years can cast a long shadow on alcohol-related mortality. The authors note that the prevalence of binge drinking among Americans ages 30 to 50 will be higher in 2022 than at any time in the past decade. As a result, they warn that even a one-time increase in alcohol consumption could lead to many alcohol-related deaths.
In light of these trends, the authors say more needs to be done to control alcohol consumption in the country.
“Evidence-based alcohol policies (e.g., reducing the number and concentration of alcohol-selling establishments and increasing alcohol taxes) may help reverse the trend in rising mortality from alcohol,” they wrote.