Surge in alcohol-related deaths raged in US during onset of COVID pandemic, study says

Alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. jumped by nearly 26% at the onset of the pandemic in the highest year-over-year increase recorded by researchers over the past two decades, according to a new study.

Researchers say these deaths reflect the hidden tolls of the pandemic as more and more Americans turned to alcohol to cope with the stress, isolation and economic hardship brought on by COVID-19.

“It shows you that the pandemic has a serious impact on our lives in a variety of ways beyond the virus itself,” said Dr. Aaron White, senior scientific advisor with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and lead author of the study, which was published in the journal JAMA.

In the past 20 years, the second highest year-over-year increase was just 5%, White told McClatchy News.

The massive spike in alcohol-related deaths in 2020 happened over a 9-month period from the start of the pandemic in March through the end of the year, he said.

Alcohol sales also rose substantially, White said, despite the fact that many bars and restaurants — which usually make up about half of alcohol sales — were closed.

“Overall in the country there was a 2.9% increase in total alcohol sales, and that doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s huge, and it’s the biggest increase in sales we’ve seen since 1968,” White said. “And so, Americans were drinking a lot more alcohol.”

A death is considered alcohol-related when alcohol is determined to be the main cause or one of 20 contributing factors in a person’s death, White said. The top causes of alcohol-related deaths in 2020 were from liver diseases, mental and behavioral disorders related to alcohol, and drug poisoning involving alcohol, according to statistics from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

But traffic-related alcohol deaths also increased in 2020, despite fewer people on the roads, White said.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, fatal crashes involving alcohol were up 14% in 2020 compared to 2019, even though vehicle miles traveled fell by 11%.

While death data for 2021 is still being calculated, White said researchers fear that alcohol-related deaths will be even higher considering it was the first full year Americans lived under the pandemic.

“I think it’s going to be a long time before the impact of the pandemic on our lives in general disappears,” he said. “It will probably always leave some impact in its wake.”

White said he hopes people will learn the importance of finding healthy mechanisms to cope with stress. He also acknowledged that many people in recovery had a harder time continuing or seeking out treatment during the pandemic.

“I think this pandemic really just disrupted our lives to such an extent that people were looking for ways to cope with it all,” he said, “and alcohol is a convenient but ultimately unhealthy strategy for that.”



As of March 23, more than 973,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.

This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 12:41 PM with the headline "Surge in alcohol-related deaths raged in US during onset of COVID pandemic, study says."