Alcohol-related deaths more than doubled in past 2 decades

Deaths have doubled in past two decades

Alcohol-related deaths have doubled in the past 18 years, according to a recent study by the journal, “Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.” The researchers believe the increase is even larger than they counted as they used death certificates to determine the cause of death and many times the cause of death isn’t apparent at the time the death certificate is completed.

Women had the largest increase in annual deaths

Nearly 1 million alcohol‐related deaths (944,880) were recorded between 1999 and 2017. While men have the highest rate of death, women had the largest increase in annual deaths. The prevalence of drinking and binge drinking didn’t change for men, however, women had a 10.1% increase in drinking and 23.3% increase in binge drinking. Other groups with a large increase in alcohol consumption were people aged 50+.

Family Support and Early Intervention

The ARISE® Network believes that one of the keys to turning this horrible statistic around is through early intervention. Research shows that kids who learn about drug risks from their parents are half as likely to use drugs as kids who haven’t had that conversation. It’s important to have open and honest conversations with your children so when they are faced with uncomfortable social pressures, they can feel more confident in their actions.

The other important step to early intervention is to look at your own generational family history. For example, the risk of addiction in future generations is greater if previous problems are unresolved. It’s time to do the work now to help your children and future generations. Let’s work on lowering those statistics, it all starts with us.