Alcohol-Related Deaths Continue Growing Among Whites. NewsWire

NEWSWIRE: 5/4/21 

• Overall rates of alcohol consumption have grown sharply over the past two decades, with the biggest growth among white women. This is also the demographic that has seen rates of alcohol abuse grow the most during the pandemic. (The New York Times)
• NH: We have written often about “deaths of despair,” the term used to describe the growing mortality rate among middle-aged, blue-collar, mostly white Americans. The drivers are suicide and rising rates of alcohol and drug abuse.
• This piece offers a big-picture look at how misuse of alcohol has grown over time. A recent JAMA study reported that between 2000 and 2016, alcohol-related deaths grew consistently among white men (+2.3% per year on average) and white women (+4.1%). Middle-aged white Americans accounted for the highest increase in deaths. The trends were more mixed among other ethnic and racial groups. Alcohol-related deaths fell among black men, black women, and Latino men through the early and mid-2000s, but have increased since then.

• The CDC has released figures on alcohol-related deaths that include an additional year: 2000-2017. I’ll break them down. Among adults ages 55-64, deaths jumped from 18.7 to 30.2 per 100K over this period. That’s a +61% increase. Among ages 45-54, they rose from 16.3 to 21.8--also not a positive trend, but a much smaller increase to a smaller total. Older and younger Americans also saw smaller totals: ages 65-74 (15.8 to 20.9), ages 35-44 (8.5 to 9.4), and ages 25-34 (1.6 to 3.4). Among the youngest age brackets, increases were negligible or didn’t occur at all.
• These figures drive home the fact that the rise in alcohol-related deaths really is linked to midlife (those ages 45-65). These are the Gen Jonesers and late-wave Boomers whose youthful risk-taking has come along for the ride as they’ve aged. Considering age and gender together, we see that deaths among 45- to 54-year-old men over this period rose from 23.3 to 33.0. Among women the same age, they’ve jumped from 6.5 to 15.7. Alcohol-related deaths among women have risen from a lower baseline and are still lower than men’s, but they have risen at a much steeper rate.
• More recently, another study found that Americans have been drinking more in response to the pandemic. Fully 60% of those polled, who were mostly white women, said that they were drinking more compared with before Covid-19. Other studies have reported increases in excessive drinking and that women’s alcohol consumption has grown to the point where their intake is comparable to that of men.
• Previous disasters, including 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, also resulted in upticks in alcohol abuse. But as the data show, the increase in drinking predates the arrival of Covid-19. In 2019, the Social Capital Project pointed out that the combined mortality rate from suicides and alcohol-related deaths had climbed to its highest level in the past century.

• Much media attention has been devoted to the issues of opioid addiction and suicide. Comparatively little has been given to alcohol abuse--most obviously because drinking alcohol in moderate amounts is considered socially acceptable. The growth in alcohol-related deaths among women is the sobering reality that’s lurking underneath all of those jokes about “wine moms.” As America begins emerging from the pandemic and the changes in substance use over the past year become clearer, I expect this to become a bigger talking point.