Objective: Although alcohol has been associated with death from a variety of causes, there are no recent data on the number of deaths in the United States attributable to harmful alcohol use. This study provides updated information on the number of deaths in the United States attributable to harmful drinking.
Method: We used the etiologic-fraction method to calculate alcohol-related mortality by cause of death, using U.S. mortality data for 2000, the most recent year available. Prevalence of alcohol use was estimated from the Behavioral Risk Factor Survey and from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Medium and high levels of regular drinking or heavy episodic drinking were defined as harmful drinking.
Results: An estimated 63,718 deaths were attributable to harmful drinking in the U.S. in 2000. Of these, an estimated 45,988 were in men and 17,730 in women, accounting for 4% of all deaths among men and 1.5% among women. Among men, 47.6% were due to medium and high levels of regular drinking, and 52.4% due to heavy episodic drinking, whereas among women these proportions were 54.2% and 45.8%.
Conclusions: Harmful drinking accounts for a substantial number of deaths each year in the United States. Prevention of this underlying cause of mortality must be a public health priority.