Excessive Alcohol Consumption to Blame for 1 in 10 Deaths

In an astonishing new report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that excessive alcohol consumption is to blame for one in 10 deaths among working-age adults ages 20-64 years in the United States.

The findings were published June 26 in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

Alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 annual fatalities from 2006 to 2010, and cut those victims' lives short by 30 years. Both the short- and long-term health effects associated with drinking alcohol, such as breast cancer, liver disease, and heart disease, and violence, alcohol poisoning and motor vehicle crashes, are what ultimately led to these deaths.

What's more, about 70 percent of these cases involved working-age adults, mostly males. And about five percent of the deaths involved people under age 21.

"Excessive alcohol use is a leading cause of preventable death that kills many Americans in the prime of their lives," Ursula E. Bauer, director of CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, said in a press release.

Excessive drinking includes binge drinking (4-5 drinks in one sitting), heavy drinking (8 or more drinks per week for women, 15 or more for men) and cases in which pregnant women or adolescents under the age of 21 engage in alcohol use.

To come up with all these facts and figures, CDC scientists analyzed data from the Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) application for 2006-2010.

"It's shocking to see the public health impact of excessive drinking on working-age adults," said Robert Brewer, head of CDC's Alcohol Program and one of the report's authors.

Excessive drinking also doesn't just have health costs, but economical costs as well - the United States ended up paying $260 million in 2006 for deaths, lost productivity and reduced earnings among drinkers.

The CDC hopes to use these results to better implement strategies aimed to decrease the incidence of such deaths.

"We need to redouble our efforts to implement scientifically proven public health approaches to reduce this tragic loss of life and the huge economic costs that result," Bauer concluded.