A recent study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) found that nearly 1 million people died from alcohol-related causes between 1999 and 2017. Researchers used mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics and also discovered that the number of death certificates mentioning alcohol more than doubled from 35,914 in 1999 to 72,558 in 2017. In addition, people ages 45 to 74 had the highest rates of deaths related to alcohol, but the biggest increases over time were among people ages 25 to 34 and among women. Rates of death involving alcohol increased by 85% for women and 35% for men over the study period, leading researchers to conclude that “alcohol is a growing women’s health issue.”
- Ann Tucker