Alarming Increase Seen in U.S. Deaths From Alcoholic Cirrhosis

Mortality rate increased more than threefold between 1999 and 2019

THURSDAY, June 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) — There was more than a threefold increase in U.S. deaths from alcoholic cirrhosis between 1999 and 2019, according to a study published online May 27 in The American Journal of Medicine.

Orly Termeie, from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, and colleagues used the Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research database to compare trends in U.S. mortality from alcoholic cirrhosis for 1999 and 2019.

The researchers found that in 1999, there were 6,007 deaths from alcoholic cirrhosis among individuals aged 25 years and older, with a mortality rate of 3.3 per 100,000, compared with 23,780 deaths from alcoholic cirrhosis in 2019 and a mortality rate of 10.6 per 100,000. The overall mortality rate ratio was 3.2, which was apparent in each 10-year age group.

“It is very sobering that in the United States between 1999 and 2019, we saw a greater than threefold increase in deaths from alcoholic cirrhosis,” a coauthor said in a statement. “Damage from chronic and excessive alcohol intake results in fatty liver disease and alcoholic hepatitis. Over time, this results in scarring and cirrhosis, the final and irreversible phase of alcoholic liver disease.”