Covid’s hangover: Booze-related deaths jumped 26% to 52,000 in 2021, as binge-drinking and lockdown lifestyles led to more cases of liver and pancreas failure and alcohol poisoning
- Alcohol-induced deaths jumped from 39,000 in 2019 to 52,000 last year
- In 2020, the death rate rose 26 percent to about 13 deaths per 100,000 Americans
- Researchers have long warned about at-home binge-drinking during months under lockdown
- Others perished because they could not access regular medical care amid the pandemic
- New Mexico, Alaska and Wyoming have the highest rates of alcohol deaths
- Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas have the lowest
- Men are 2 1/2 times more likely than women to die from booze
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The rate of deaths directly due to alcohol jumped by 26 percent in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, government data has revealed, when millions of Americans hit the bottle during months spent at home under lockdown.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that alcohol-caused liver or pancreas failure, alcohol poisoning, withdrawal and other ‘alcohol-induced’ deaths jumped from 39,000 in 2019 to 52,000 last year.
The rate of alcohol induced deaths had been increasing in the two decades before the pandemic, by 7 percent or less each year. In 2020, it rose 26 percent to about 13 deaths per 100,000 Americans.
That’s the highest rate recorded in at least 40 years, according to the report, which was released on Friday.
‘Alcohol is often overlooked’ as a public health problem, Marissa Esser, the CDC’s top alcohol expert told AP.
‘But it is a leading preventable cause of death.’
A liver scan result from a 79-Year-oldmale patient. Alcohol-caused liver or pancreas failure, alcohol poisoning and other woes increased during the pandemic
Experts have long warned that at-home binge-drinking was a huge downside of the pandemic and lockdowns, but the actual death toll from booze-related issues is only being calculated now.
Such deaths are 2 1/2 times more common in men than in women, but rose for both in 2020, researchers found.
The rate continued to be highest for people ages 55 to 64, but rose dramatically for certain other groups, including jumping 42 percent among women aged between 35 and 44.
A second report, published earlier this week in JAMA Network Open, looked at a wider range of deaths that could be linked to drinking, such as motor vehicle accidents, suicides, falls and cancers.
More than 140,000 of that broader category of alcohol-related deaths occur annually, based on data from 2015 to 2019, researchers said.
CDC researchers say about 82,000 of those deaths are from drinking too much over a long period of time and 58,000 from causes tied to acute intoxication.
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Younger people between the ages of 25 to 34 are most likely to binge-drink, with a quarter taking part in the activity, according to CDC
The study found that as many as one in eight deaths among US adults aged between 20 and 64 were alcohol-related.
New Mexico was the state with the highest percentage of alcohol-related deaths, 22 percent. Mississippi had the lowest, 9 percent.
Alcohol accounts for a bigger share of deaths among young people, as they are both more likely to take part in risky drinking behaviors while also being less likely to die of many other common causes.
The CDC reports that nearly a quarter of Americans between 25 and 34 binge-drink.
Heavy drinking is associated with chronic dangers such as liver cancer, high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease. Drinking by pregnant women can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth or birth defects.
Dr Patricia Molina, director of the Louisiana State University Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center of Excellence who was not involved in the study, told DailyMail.com that she was not surprised by these findings.
‘The results from this study are not shocking, though some may consider them as a rude awakening,’ Dr Molina said.
‘Alcohol consumption at this level has been scientifically demonstrated to lead to increased risk for injury … and to contribute to the development of disease.’
Health chiefs say booze is behind as many as one-third of serious falls among the elderly.
It’s also a risk to others through drunken driving or alcohol-fueled violence.
Surveys suggest that more than half the alcohol sold in the US is consumed during binge-drinking episodes.
Even before the pandemic, alcohol consumption was trending up, and Americans were drinking more than when Prohibition was enacted.
But deaths may have increased since the Covid-19 pandemic began for several reasons, including people with alcohol-related illnesses having difficulty getting treatment, added Esser.
Alcohol is linked to more than 140,000 deaths each year when researchers also count motor vehicle accidents, suicides, falls and cancers
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