Binge drinking causes 10 percent of deaths in US

Health experts and medical professionals always recommend adults to keep a tab on their habit of alcohol consumption. The researchers conducted a study to find out the association between drinking and deaths. According to the researchers, America’s favorite legal drug has vast adverse effects on public health.

The researchers came out with some glaring exposures. The study showed that one in 10 deaths among US adults is linked to excessive alcohol consumption.

The study was conducted by the researchers in order to find out the association between alcohol use and the deaths of American adults. The researchers had designed the study structure in such a way that the association between alcohol consumption and deaths are established. The idea was not to know whether alcohol directly caused those deaths.

Lead researcher Mandy Stahre said that drinking is often linked with deaths from road accidents and chronic liver disease.

“Excessive drinking is associated with a lot more causes of death than what we tend to focus on. Alcohol intake plays a role in at least 54 different conditions linked to death,” said Stahre, who conducted the study while at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Stahre is an epidemiologist at the Washington state Department of Health.

“Binge drinking is associated with 51 percent of all deaths due to excessive drinking,” Stahre said while adding, “Binge drinking, for instance, “does not mix well with swimming or boating.”

Binge drinking is defined as consumption of five or more drinks by men, while in women, the number of pegs or drinks is four or more.

Study

The researchers involved a tool known as the Alcohol-Related Disease Impact application to estimate which deaths were due to alcohol and to find how their numbers varied among states.

The research was carried for the period of five years from 2006 to 2010 in the United States.

During the study period, as many as 2.5 million potential years of living may have been cut short due to alcohol use, the researchers found.

71 percent of those who died were men.

“They are more likely to engage in excessive drinking,” Stahre said.

Researchers noted that the number of deaths due to alcohol consumption varied greatly state-wise. For instance, New Jersey had 19 deaths annually per 100,000 people, while New Mexico had 51 per 100,000 people.

According to the researchers, several factors like state policies on selling alcohol, religious beliefs, differences in drinking patterns and differences in access to health care were responsible for such variations among states.

“The findings come as no surprise. The study points out that one doesn’t have to be an alcoholic to experience the negative consequences of alcohol”, said Dr James Garbutt, a professor of psychiatry and a research scientist at the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The researchers also noted about the drinking related reasons that led to deaths. Alcoholic liver disease topped the list of all alcohol-related deaths by causing 14,364 a year. It was followed by motor vehicle crashes (12,460), suicide (8,179) and homicide (7,756).

The finding is published in the June issue of the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

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Christina Langfold

Remember that weird girl in school who never quite managed to fit in? Who was always silent and strange? That was me during my entire teenage life. A few years after finishing college (with a degree in arts) I decided that the best way to become more sociable, while also feeling safe, is to test my people skills online.