Between 1999 and 2017, the fatality rate in the United States was increased by 50.9 percent due to alcohol-related disorders, according to a report published yesterday (January 7) in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
There were 35,914 alcohol-related deaths in the United States in 1999, but this number climbed to 72,558 in 2017. According to the report, approximately 1 million Americans died from alcohol-related causes over the last two decades. Around half of these deaths were caused by liver illness or alcohol overdoses.
Alcohol-related deaths in 2017 were comparable to the public health issue of drug overdose deaths—a little more than 70,000 Americans died in 2017 from drugs such as heroin and fentanyl, according to Gizmodo. And the total number of alcohol-related deaths may be an underestimate, as CNN reports that only around one in every six drunk driving deaths is attributed to alcohol.
Men aged 45 to 74 had the highest prevalence of alcohol-related deaths, whereas white women saw the greatest increase in alcohol-related deaths over this time period. “At equivalent levels of alcohol exposure, women are at a larger risk than men of developing alcohol-related cardiovascular diseases, some malignancies, alcohol-related liver disease, and acute liver failure as a result of excessive drinking,” the study’s authors wrote. Native Americans also suffered disproportionately.
According to CNN, binge drinking has climbed by approximately 7.7 percent since the turn of the twenty-first century, while alcohol consumption per capita has increased by approximately 8%. According to NBC News, government guidelines prescribe no more than one alcoholic drink per day for women and two for males.