Alcohol-related deaths rising in US, particularly among women
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- Alcohol-related deaths have increased in both men and women from 1999 to 2020.
- Recently, the rate of increase in women has surpassed that of men: 14.7% vs. 12.5% per year from 2018 to 2020.
Men continue to be more likely to die from alcohol than women; however, women have seen a greater increase in alcohol-related mortality rates in recent years, highlighting the need for evidence-based interventions, according to researchers.
Nasim Maleki, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues wrote in JAMA Network Open that alcohol consumption is rising among women in the United States, and “there is a need to conduct a comprehensive assessment of sex differences in alcohol-associated deaths using contemporary data.”
“We were intrigued to do this study because there are sex differences in the prevalence, risk factors and patterns of alcohol consumption that seem to have been shifting,” Maleki told Healio. “We were particularly interested in understanding the consequences of such shifting patterns. One of the ways to examine that of course was looking at the changing trends in alcohol-related mortality rates between men and women.”
Maleki and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional time series study using data from the CDC. They identified a total of 605,948 alcohol-attributed deaths in the U.S. from 1999 through 2020 (age-adjusted mortality rate [AAMR] = 8.3 per 100,000 persons; 95% CI, 8.3-8.3).
Overall, men faced a higher mortality burden than women; they were 2.88 (95% CI = 2.86-2.89) times more likely to die from alcohol.
Although the researchers observed increases in alcohol-related deaths for both men and women in recent years, women had higher rates of increase. For women, the AAMR increased by 14.7% (95% CI, 9.1%-20.5%) per year from 2018 to 2020. For men during that same period, the AAMR increased by 12.5% (95% CI, 6.4%-19.1%).
“We have observed a concerning trend of rising rates of alcohol-related deaths in both men and women in recent years,” Maleki said. “Examining the temporal patterns of this trend has revealed that the increase in alcohol-related deaths among women has surpassed that of men in various demographic categories, such as race and ethnicity, age, cause of death and geographical region.”
She added that “this study rings the alarm from a public health perspective.”
“Perhaps one immediate clinical implication of the findings for the health care professionals is to tailor screening, interventions and treatment strategies to address specific needs of the patients dealing with consequences of alcohol use or misuse by considering the sex-related factors that may be at play,” Maleki said. “For instance, difference in body composition, metabolism and hormonal levels between men and women can influence the way alcohol is absorbed and processed in their bodies and the impact that it has.”
These differences, she said, “are particularly important when looking for patterns of problematic drinking in women which may look very different than that of men yet with similar consequential effects.”
With the rising death rates, Maleki said “it is crucial to screen for alcohol use disorders in primary care settings and identify those at risk early.”
“Excessive heavy drinking, binge drinking or presence of certain health conditions could be precursors to the development of alcohol use disorders,” Maleki said. “Both men and women, regardless of age, socioeconomic or cultural background, could be at risk for developing alcohol use disorders.”
Perspective
Back to Top
Recently, WHO declared that even small amounts of alcohol consumption have an adverse effect on health. The alcohol and restaurant industries may continue to promote otherwise, but pushing back on the adage that “moderate” drinking is good for you is imperative. It is estimated that more than 140,000 people (approximately 97,000 men and 43,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually, making alcohol the fourth-leading preventable cause of death in the United States behind tobacco, poor diet and physical inactivity and illegal drugs.
This article highlights how the alcohol-related mortality rates have increased for both men and women, with higher rates of increase among women relative to men. Recent studies indicate that the narrowing sex gap is attributed to increased alcohol use, high-risk drinking and alcohol use disorder in women. The age-adjusted mortality rate increased by 12.5% per year for men and by 14.7% per year for women between 2018 and 2020. The normalization of cultural practices surrounding alcohol consumption may be associated with this trend. Further research is necessary to guide evidence-based interventions aimed at reducing alcohol-related mortality risks for all individuals.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts