Heavy Drinking Leads To Risk Of Early Death –Study

As alcohol-related deaths surges in the United States, nearly doubling over 20 years, experts have warned that heavy drinking is a leading risk factor for early death, heart attack and stroke.

Results of the study which were published recently in the ‘American Journal of Medicine’, found a growing number of alcohol death victims are women.

“Our study found significant gender differences in alcoholrelated [death rates],” said senior author Yiota Kitsantas, head of population health and social medicine at the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) College of Medicine.

“While men had higher overall death rates, women experienced a larger relative increase, which may reflect changing social norms and the alcohol industry’s increased targeting of women through marketing campaigns.”

For the study, she and her colleagues looked at U.S. government data from 1999 to 2020.

Over that period, the rate of alcohol-related deaths nearly doubled — from 10.7 per 100,000 to 21.6 per 100,000. In raw numbers, alcohol-related deaths spiked from 19,356 to 48,870.

While numbers were up in every age group, there was a nearly fourfold spike among 25- to 34-year-olds.