Twenty-Year Observational Study Shows Rising Alcohol-Attributable Death Profiles in the U.S. and Delaware

Abstract

The U.S. alcohol-attributable mortality burden makes it the third-leading cause of preventable deaths. This 1999-2018 observational study used the Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases codes and the alcohol-related disease impact (ARDI) causes of death records to track alcohol’s mortality burden. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) death certificates for the U.S. community. Evidence indicates that the U.S. ARDI mortality rates progressively trended upward (53.73%). Men were three times as likely as women to die, but female mortality rate changes (90.03%) advanced more rapidly than males. The study also revealed that the changes in alcohol-related death rate percentages for middle-age groups increased faster. In contrast, the African American/Black (AA/B) community’s age-adjusted mortality rate change patterns first declined and then increased. The alcohol-attributable mortality rate (1999 to 2018) difference for AA/B was -6.35%.

Delaware’s population is around one million, and about 23% is African American/Black. The subgroup analysis for Delaware’s population was robust and showed alcohol-attributable mortality rates above national averages. This trend was apparent for both gender and race.

In conclusion, for both the U.S. and Delaware, alcohol use disorder is a risk factor for mortality, especially for males.