Excessive alcohol consumption is responsible for one in 10 deaths among working-age adults in the United States, according to a new study.
The study has been published in the CDC’s journal Preventing Chronic Disease.
Americans’ relationship with alcohol has become dangerous in recent years. Bingeing, partying, frequenting cocktails and drinking alone are all common for Americans, according to NewsDay.
Researchers, according to Fox News, used the CDC’s Alcohol-Related Disease Impact online application to estimate the deaths among adults between the ages 20 and 64 who died due to alcohol consumption. The also looked at the years of life that were lost throughout the U.S. by gender and age.
Over the study period, the researchers found that excessive alcohol consumption led to nearly 88,000 deaths and shortened life by about 30 years. Dafna Kanny, CDC, said that this is the equivalent to 2.5 million years of potential life lost each year all because of excessive alcohol consumption.
The number of alcohol-related deaths have increased by about 12,000 since 2004. Alcohol-related deaths include car crashes, falls and chronic illnesses.
The causes of deaths and numbers are as follows: alcohol-related car accidents, 13,000; chronic diseases (liver disease, liver cirrhosis, alcohol dependence syndrome), 25,500; excessive alcohol consumption, 71 percent of deaths.
Kanny said that, “Among drivers in fatal motor vehicle crashes, men are almost twice as likely as women to have been intoxicated.”
States with the highest percentages of alcohol-related deaths are as follows: New Mexico, 16.4; Alaska, 15.9; Colorado, 14.2; Arizona, 13.4; Wyoming, 13.4; Montana, 13.2; California, 12.3; Nevada, 11.6; Oregon, 11.6; Idaho, 11.3; and New York, 7.9. The percentage of deaths attributable to alcohol nationwide is 9.8.
Strategies to lower the amount of alcohol-related deaths each year include raising tax on alcohol, reducing the number of places you can buy alcohol and raising penalties for alcohol retailers who sell to underage people.