AARP Hearing Center
Peter Urban,
The United States has seen an increase in alcohol-related deaths over the past 20 years, with rates nearly doubling between 1999 and 2017, according to researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).
The researchers, who looked at U.S. death certificates filed between 1999 and 2017, found that in 2017 alcohol was mentioned as causing or contributing to 72,558 deaths (or 2.6 percent of all deaths in the U.S.) — more than twice as many as in 1999, when alcohol was included for 35,914 deaths (or 1.5 percent of all deaths).
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Nearly half of alcohol-related deaths in 2017 resulted from liver disease (31 percent, or 22,245 deaths) or overdoses on alcohol alone or with other drugs (18 percent, or 12,954 deaths).
"The current findings suggest that alcohol-related deaths involving injuries, overdoses and chronic diseases are increasing across a wide swath of the population,” said George F. Koob, director of NIAAA, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. “The report is a wake-up call to the growing threat alcohol poses to public health."
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Adults ages 45 to 74 had the highest rates of deaths related to alcohol, but people 25 to 34 saw the biggest increases over the 20-year span. Still, the researchers note that overall rates of alcohol-related deaths are more than four times as high among people ages 45 to 74 as among those ages 25 to 34 and that the nation is only growing older. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that by 2034 there will be more Americans over 65 than under 18.