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Alcohol's Effects on Health
Research-based information on drinking and its impact.
Alcohol-Related Emergencies and Deaths in the United States
The rate of all alcohol-related emergency department visits increased 47.0% between 2006 and 2014, which translates to an average annual increase of 210,000 alcohol-related emergency department visits.1
Estimates suggest that alcohol played a role in at least 7.1% of emergency department visits and 17.4% of deaths due to opioid overdoses in 2020.2,3
The Alcohol-Related Disease Impact application estimates that each year there are more than 178,000 deaths (approximately 120,000 male deaths and 59,000 female deaths) attributable to excessive alcohol use, making alcohol one of the leading preventable causes of death in the United States, behind tobacco, poor diet and physical inactivity, and illegal drugs.4,5
An analysis of death certificates showed that deaths involving alcohol among people ages 16 and older rose 25.5%, from 78,927 in 2019 to 99,017 in 2020, in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Deaths in this same age group increased another 9.9%, to 108,791 in 2021, and then decreased by 3.1%, to 105,415 in 2022.6
Between 2015 and 2019, the leading causes of alcohol-attributable deaths due to chronic conditions in the United States were liver diseases (e.g., alcohol-associated liver disease and unspecified liver cirrhosis), cardiovascular diseases, cancers of various types (e.g., organs of the upper respiratory and digestive tracts, liver, colon, and breast), and alcohol use disorder (AUD).4
In 2022, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities accounted for 13,524 deaths (or 32% of overall driving fatalities).7
According to the most recent estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 21.0% of suicide decedents have blood alcohol concentrations of 0.1% or more.8
Among people who die by suicide, AUD is the second most common mental disorder and involved in roughly 1 in 4 deaths by suicide.9
According to CDC, due to scientific updates to Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI), estimates of alcohol-attributable deaths or years of potential life lost generated in the current version of ARDI should not be compared with estimates that were generated using the ARDI default reports or analyses in the ARDI Custom Data Portal prior to February 29, 2024.
References
White AM, Slater ME, Ng G, Hingson R, Breslow R. Trends in alcohol-related emergency department visits in the United States: results from the nationwide emergency department sample, 2006 to 2014. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2018;42(2):352-9. PubMed PMID: 29293274
Analysis of data from the 2020 National Emergency Department Sample. Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). October 2022. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. Available from: hcup-us.ahrq.gov/nedsoverview.jsp
White AM, Castle IP, Powell PA, Hingson RW, Koob GF, Alcohol-related deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA. 2022;327(17):1704-6. PubMed PMID: 35302593
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics System, Provisional Mortality on CDC WONDER Online Database. Data are from the final Multiple Cause of Death Files, 2018-2022, and from provisional data for years 2023-2024, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed at https://wonder.cdc.gov/mcd-icd10-provisional.html on Oct 31, 2024.
National Center for Statistics and Analysis, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Overview of Motor Vehicle Crashes in 2022 [Internet]. Washington: U.S. Department of Transportation; 2024 Apr [cited 2024 May 15]. 18 p. Available from: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813560
Alpert HR, Slater ME, Yoon YH, Chen CM, Winstanley N, Esser MB. Alcohol consumption and 15 causes of fatal injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Prev Med. 2022;63(2):286-300. PubMed PMID: 35581102
Berglund M, Ojehagen A. The influence of alcohol drinking and alcohol use disorders on psychiatric disorders and suicidal behavior. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1998;22(7 Suppl):333S-345S. PubMed PMID: 9799958