Alcohol death rate in US is rising, government reports say

Deaths that can be directly attributed to alcohol rose nearly 30% in the U.S. during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Two new reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed which states are seeing the highest numbers and which groups are impacted. The agency already said such deaths rose in 2020 and 2021.

According to the World Health Organization, the harmful use of alcohol is a causal factor in more than 200 disease and injury conditions, with 3 million resulting deaths annually.

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A report released on Friday detailed more than a dozen kinds of such deaths, including liver or pancreas failure, alcohol poisoning and withdrawal.

The rate of those deaths had been increasing by 7% or less each year, but rose 26% in 2020 – the highest rate in at least 40 years. 

There were more than 52,000 such deaths last year. That number rose from 39,000 in 2019, for both men and women. The deaths are 2.5 times more common in men. 

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The rate also remained higher for people ages 55 to 64, but also jumped 42% among women ages 35 to 44. 

A second report looked at a wider range of deaths that could be linked to alcohol, including cancers and motor vehicle accidents.

Researchers said more than 140,000 of that broader category of deaths occur annually, based on data from 2015 to 2019. That is more than 380 deaths each day.

About 82,000 are from drinking too much over a long period of time and 58,000 are from causes tied to acute intoxication.

The study found that as many as 1 in 8 deaths among U.S. adults ages 20 to 64 were alcohol-related deaths. 

New Mexico had the highest percentage of alcohol-related deaths, at 22%.

Mississippi had the lowest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.