Annual deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by nearly 30% from 2016 to 2021
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- The average number of annual deaths increased from 137,927 to 178,307 from 2016 to 2021.
- By sex, deaths increased by 26.8% among men and 34.7% among women.
The average number of deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by 29.3% from 2016 to 2021, with an age-standardized rise in death rate from 38.1 to 47.6 per 100,000 population, according to data in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
“Deaths from causes fully attributable to alcohol use have increased during the past 2 decades in the United States; rates were particularly elevated from 2019 to 2020, concurrent with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Marissa B. Esser, PhD, of the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, and colleagues wrote. “A comprehensive assessment of changes in deaths from excessive alcohol use that includes conditions that are fully and partially attributable to alcohol can guide the rationale for and implementation of effective prevention strategies.”
Using data from the National Vital Statistics System, Esser and colleagues identified total U.S. deaths from 2016 through 2021 attributed to 58 alcohol-related conditions outlined in the CDC’s Alcohol-Related Disease Impact application. Researchers calculated percent changes in the number of deaths during three 2-year periods (2016-2017, 2018-2019 and 2020-2021), overall and by sex and cause of death.
According to study results, the average number of annual deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by 5.3% from 2016 to 2019 (137,927 to 145,253) and “increased more sharply” — by 22.8% — from 2018 to 2021 (145,253 to 178,307), an overall increase of 29.3% from 2016 to 2021. The age-standardized death rates increased from 38.1 to 47.6 per 100,000 population between 2016 and 2021.
Stratified by sex, deaths among men increased by 26.8%, from 94,362 to 119,606, during this time, with age-standardized death rates also increasing from 54.8 to 66.9 per 100,000. Among women, deaths increased by 34.7%, from 43,565 to 58,701, with age-standardized death rates increasing from 22.7 to 29.4 per 100,000.
“States and communities can discourage excessive alcohol use and reverse recent increases in alcohol-attributable deaths by implementing comprehensive strategies, including evidence-based alcohol policies that reduce the availability and accessibility of alcohol and increase its price,” Esser and colleagues wrote. “Increased use of these strategies, particularly effective alcohol policies, could help reduce excessive alcohol use and related deaths among persons who drink and also reduce harms to persons who are affected by others’ alcohol use.”
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts