An examination of U.S. death certificate data shows that alcohol-related deaths doubled over the last two decades, from 35,914 in 1999 to 72,558 in 2017.
The analysis, conducted by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, gathered data from all U.S. death certificates filed from 1999 to 2017. Researchers defined "alcohol-related death" as any death that listed an alcohol-induced cause as the underlying or a contributing cause of death.
In addition to finding that alcohol-related deaths doubled during the study period, researchers also found 31 percent of alcohol-related deaths resulted from liver disease and 18 percent resulted from overdosing on alcohol alone or with other drugs.
People between the ages of 45 and 74 years had the highest rates of deaths related to alcohol. Deaths in the 25-34 age group saw big increases over time.
Death rates involving alcohol increased more for women than men, the study shows.
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