Department of Public Policy and Public Affairs, John McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA.
The Center for Global Health and Health Policy, Global Health and Education Projects, Inc., Riverdale, MD, USA.
Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2023 Jul 4;49(4):450-457. doi: 10.1080/00952990.2023.2208728. Epub 2023 Jun 20.
Historically, American Indians/Alaska Natives (AIANs), Blacks, and Hispanics have experienced higher alcohol-induced mortality rates. Given a disproportionate surge in unemployment rate and financial strain among racial and ethnic minorities and limited access to alcohol use disorder treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to examine monthly trends in alcohol-induced mortality in the United States during the pandemic. This study estimates changes in monthly alcohol-induced mortality among US adults by age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Using monthly deaths from 2018-2021 national mortality files ( = 178,201 deaths, 71.5% male, 28.5% female) and census-based monthly population estimates, we calculated age-specific monthly alcohol-induced death rates and performed log-linear regression to derive monthly percent increases in mortality rates. Alcohol-induced deaths among adults aged ≥25 years increased by 25.7% between 2019 (38,868 deaths) and 2020 (48,872 deaths). During 2018-2021, the estimated monthly percent change was higher for females (1.1% per month) than males (1.0%), and highest for AIANs (1.4%), followed by Blacks (1.2%), Hispanics (1.0%), non-Hispanic Whites (1.0%), and Asians (0.8%). In particular, between February 2020 and January 2021, alcohol-induced mortality increased by 43% for males, 53% for females, 107% for AIANs, the largest increase, followed by Blacks (58%), Hispanics (56%), Asians (44%), and non-Hispanic Whites (39%). During the peak months of the pandemic, the rising trends in alcohol-induced mortality differed substantially by race and ethnicity. Our findings indicate that behavioral and policy interventions and future investigation on underlying mechanisms should be considered to reduce alcohol-induced mortality among Blacks and AIANs.
从历史上看，美洲印第安人/阿拉斯加原住民（AIAN）、黑人和西班牙裔的酒精导致的死亡率较高。在 COVID-19 大流行期间，少数族裔的失业率和经济压力剧增，获得酒精使用障碍治疗的机会有限，因此，有必要检查大流行期间美国酒精导致的死亡率的月度趋势。本研究估计了美国成年人按年龄、性别和种族/族裔划分的每月酒精导致的死亡率变化。使用 2018-2021 年国家死亡率档案中的每月死亡人数（=178201 例死亡，71.5%为男性，28.5%为女性）和基于人口普查的每月人口估计数，我们计算了特定年龄的每月酒精导致的死亡率，并进行了对数线性回归，以得出死亡率每月百分比的增加。2019 年（38868 例死亡）和 2020 年（48872 例死亡）之间，年龄在 25 岁及以上的成年人的酒精导致的死亡人数增加了 25.7%。在 2018-2021 年期间，女性（每月 1.1%）的估计每月百分比变化高于男性（每月 1.0%），且 AIAN 最高（每月 1.4%），其次是黑人（每月 1.2%）、西班牙裔（每月 1.0%）、非西班牙裔白人（每月 1.0%）和亚洲人（每月 0.8%）。特别是，2020 年 2 月至 2021 年 1 月期间，男性的酒精导致的死亡率增加了 43%，女性增加了 53%，AIAN 增加了 107%，增幅最大，其次是黑人（增加 58%）、西班牙裔（增加 56%）、亚洲人（增加 44%）和非西班牙裔白人（增加 39%）。在大流行的高峰期，酒精导致的死亡率的上升趋势因种族和族裔而异。我们的研究结果表明，应该考虑采取行为和政策干预措施以及对潜在机制进行未来调查，以降低黑人和 AIAN 中的酒精导致的死亡率。
