For alcohol awareness month and for my day job (Nurse and Health Coach in Corporate Wellness) my coworker asked me to put together some stats for our social. It was jaw dropping to her (and me too.)
Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2022), the statistics surrounding alcohol use and abuse are staggering:
More than 65 million Americans report binge drinking or heavy drinking in a one-month period, which is more than 40% of those who drink alcohol.
An estimated 95,000 people (68,000 men and 27,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually.
Alcohol use is responsible for 1 in 10 total deaths among working-age adults.
According to the CDC, there are 261 deaths each day in the U.S. because of excessive alcohol use.
It is the third-leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
More than half of all deaths that are attributed to alcohol are the result of health effects from drinking too much over time – for example, various types of cancer, liver disease and heart disease.
In 2019, there were 10,142 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities, totaling 28% of all traffic fatalities for the year.
Cost to the nation exceeds $249 billion.
I share it here not to scare you but to bring some awareness to alcohol use. It’s not a harmless drink. For the women reading, tune in. Alcohol consumption is increasingly a woman’s issue. Alcohol linked death rates for women have gone up by 85% in the last decade. Alcohol-related ER visits have gone up by more than 60% from 2006 – 2014 -- and it wasn’t due to teen drinking. Adult women and middle-aged drinkers are driving large increases in alcohol related ER visits.
If you are ready to do something about your drinking, I’m here to help you. I have multiple free resources and I run monthly Alcoholidays. I call them Alcoholidays because they are a break from drinking and a gift to yourself.
Free resources from ATP: