Dramatic Rise in US Deaths Related to Alcohol Use Disorder During Pandemic

Rates of mortality related to alcohol use disorder (AUD) in the United States dramatically increased among all ages and sexes during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published online in JAMA Network Open.

“During the first few months of the pandemic, my colleagues and I saw increased numbers of patients being treated for acute alcohol use-related conditions in the intensive care unit and throughout the medical center,” said study lead author Yee Hui Yeo, MD, MSc, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California. “We also became aware of reports from single centers of elevated alcohol use-related complications. That prompted us to think, maybe this is a significant public health crisis.”

For the study, the research team evaluated mortality rates in people diagnosed with AUD between 2012 and 2021 in the United States. Data from 2012 to 2019 was used to project 2020 and 2021 mortality rates, which researchers then compared with observed mortality during that time.

“By comparing observed and projected mortality rates, we noticed a surge in AUD mortality both overall and among all subgroups during the pandemic,” they wrote.

Compared with projected mortality rates, observed AUD-related mortality increased 24.79% in 2020 and 21.95% in 2021, according to study. Deaths for which AUD was listed as the primary cause increased by 30.74% in 2020 and 28.77% in 2021.

Adults between 25 years of age and 44 years of age had the steepest upward trend in AUD mortality: 40.47% in 2020 and 33.95% in 2021.

Increases in AUD-related mortality were similar for both men and women, the investigators found. Less than 10% of excess deaths were attributable to COVID-19 infection.

“Our study is limited by potential misclassification bias in death certificate data,” researchers wrote. “However, AUD is typically underrecognized, and we would expect such factors to result in lower observed death rates.”

—Jolynn Tumolo

 

References:

1. Yeo YH, He X, Ting PS, et al. Evaluation of trends in alcohol use disorder-related mortality in the us before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Network Open. 2022;5(5):e2210259.
2. Deaths from alcohol use disorder surged during pandemic, study finds. News release. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; May 16, 2022. Accessed May 18, 2022.