Age adjusted mortality rates for alcohol associated liver disease in the US doubled between 1999 and 2022, according to new analysis published by JAMA Network Open. The death rate increased from 6.71 to 12.53 per 100,000 with a ‘significant acceleration’ around the COVID-19 pandemic.
Researchers studied almost 440,000 alcohol associated liver disease deaths and found there were also ‘disproportionate’ increases among women, young adults aged 25-44 and Native American and Alaska Native populations.
These trends were ‘particularly concerning’ the researchers state, highlighting the ‘urgent need for targeted public health interventions and enhanced surveillance’. This was especially the case given the sustained impact of pandemic-related changes in consumption patterns, which were ‘more severe and enduring’ than previously documented. Many countries have seen increases in alcohol-related deaths in recent years, with the UK experiencing record-high deaths every year since the pandemic.
Although the US has also been in the grip of an opioid crisis since the late 1990s – officially declared a public health emergency in 2017 – provisional data for the year to September 2024 shows an almost 24 per cent fall in overdose fatalities compared to the previous year, thanks to factors such as data-driven distribution of naloxone and improved access to treatment.
Alcohol-associated liver disease mortality available here