Alcohol-related deaths rose 25% in the US during pandemic

Nearly a million people have died from Covid-19 in the United States in the past two years, but the full impact of the pandemic’s collateral damage is still being calculated.

Now a new study reports that the number of Americans who died from alcohol-related causes rose sharply during the first year of the pandemic, with routines disrupted, support networks strained and treatments delayed.

The surprising report comes amid a growing understanding that the cost of Covid-19 goes well beyond the number of deaths the pandemic has directly caused, and extends to additional deaths caused by diseases that went untreated in the period and a soaring in drug overdoses, as well as social costs such as delays in education and loss of parents and caregivers.

Numerous reports have pointed out that Americans are drinking more to cope with the stress of the pandemic. Compulsive alcohol consumption increased, as did the number of emergency room visits, due to alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

But the new report found that the number of alcohol-related deaths, which includes fatalities from liver disease and accidents, has skyrocketed, rising from 78,927 in 2019 to 99,017 in 2020, a 25% rise in the number of deaths in just one year. .

This compares with a 3.6% annual increase in the number of alcohol-related deaths between 1999 and 2019. compared to 2018.

The study, led by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health, was published Friday by The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Using information from death certificates, the researchers included all deaths in which alcohol was mentioned as an underlying or contributory cause — only a small number of deaths also involved Covid-19.

“The assumption is that there are many people who were in recovery and had reduced access to support systems in the second quarter of that year, and experienced relapses,” said Aaron White, the report’s lead author and the institute’s senior scientific advisor.

“Stress is the primary factor in relapses and there is no question that there was a sharp rise in patient-reported stress, and indicators of anxiety and depression, as well as uncertainty across the planet about what would happen next,” he said. “That puts a lot of pressure on people who are trying to maintain a recovery.”

Among adults over 65, the number of alcohol-related deaths surpassed that of Covid-19 deaths in 2020; 74,708 Americans aged 16 to 64 died from alcohol-related causes while 74,075 individuals aged under 65 died from Covid-19. The pace of increase in alcohol-related deaths in 2020 —25%—outpaced the increase in fatalities associated with all causes, which was 16.6%.

Alcohol-related deaths rose for all groups — men, women and across all ethnic and racial divisions. Deaths among men and women rose at about the same rate, but the absolute number of deaths among men was much higher.

Drug overdose deaths also hit a record high during the pandemic, with more than 100,000 Americans dying from overdoses in the 12-month period ending April 2021, nearly 30% more than the 12-month period ended. in April of the previous year, according to reports released in November. The number of opioid-associated deaths in which alcohol also played a role grew, too.

Adults aged 25 to 44 saw the biggest rise in alcohol-related deaths in 2020, up nearly 40% from a year earlier, according to the new report.

Available data for 2021 indicate that alcohol-related deaths remained high, White said, but he added that it was difficult to say whether this indicated a continuation of the trend because alcohol consumption and the number of deaths in general fell in February after the parties, and then it grows back.

“It could be that the numbers will fall again. Or it could be that we are facing the new norm,” he said.

The crisis had been intensifying for a few years now, as alcohol consumption among adults was on the rise despite its use by teenagers falling, said Katherine Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University who was not involved in the study.

Mental health issues were also experiencing an upswing before the pandemic, which makes people more susceptible to substance abuse.

“As with many of the outcomes associated with the pandemic, we’ve had an exacerbation of issues that were already starting before the pandemic, for a lot of people,” Keyes said.

“Alcohol consumption had been growing for 10 or 15 years among adults, and the trend accelerated in 2020, with some of the motivations for drinking changing. Alcohol consumption caused by stress has increased, and alcohol consumption due to boredom also grew”.

Adults in their 20s and 40s who have and live with children were under the most stress, trying to juggle remote work and learning; those who do not have children, and generally drink more, may have had to deal with stronger feelings of isolation and loneliness anyway.

And when people drink at home, she pointed out, there is no bartender who monitors the serving size — “the ability to regulate how much is being poured into the glass is less,” she said — and drinking is also cheaper.

Total alcohol sales in the United States grew 2.9% in terms of volume in 2020 from a year earlier, the highest annual sales increase since 1968, according to White.

He called for new approaches to addiction that teach people how to deal with stress in a more productive way.

“We are entering an era of public health where we talk more about promoting well-being and building more resilient people,” he said. “What we’re doing now isn’t enough. We need to help people live meaningful lives and have purpose.”

^{Translation by Paulo Migliacci}