United States: Alcohol-related age-adjusted mortality rates in adults aged 55 or more have soared by 237 percent, ending 2020 versus 1999 rates, while chronic stress during the pandemic was probably the key driving force of the new HIV statistics.
This illness is quite indiscriminate since it does not go by either gender or class and is likely to cause a massive number of emergency department admissions due to the approaching baby boomer generation and the rest of the population who are pressuring the healthcare system.
According to Dailymail reports, Dr George Koob of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism said, “If the Baby Boomers consumed alcohol at the same levels as the prior generation, the sheer size of the group would lead to a significant increase in alcohol-related harms.”
And, “While the prevalence of drinking in this age group increased by only 15.7 percent, the actual number of drinkers increased by 80.2 percent.”
Alcohol Consumption Among Boomers in the US
Alcohol reached the greatest potential in the year 1980 in the US when the baby boomers were in the generation’s active years. Correspondingly, we see a trend – people become more focused on the habits and eating and drinking patterns they had when they were young than on reducing them.
An analysis reveals that women are now drinking more, filling the gap where men used to dominate in terms of alcohol consumption and intoxication.
Men over 65 increased their drinking by 0.7 percent per year from 1997 to 2014, nearly doubling the rate of women, who increased by 1.6 percent per year over the same period.
Keith Humphreys, a psychologist and addiction researcher at Stanford, stated, “The boomers are a substance-using generation,” as reported by the New York Times.
Rise of alcohol drinking in women – Experts
“Women have been the drivers of change in this age group,” added Keith.
He emphasizes the fact that a lot of boomers women found opportunity to work in environments that strongly associated drinking with the workplace culture while individuals had more income for spending.
Keith added, “Contrary to stereotypes, upper-middle-class, educated people have higher rates of drinking,” and, “The women retiring now are more likely to drink than their mothers and grandmothers.”
Deaths associated with alcohol in the US
More than 178,000 Americans had their lives taken away by alcohol in 2021, which developed into an increase of almost one-third from that which happened just two years ago.
More than 38 percent of them have been over the age of 65, and now the experts are apprehensive about the actual toll of the epidemic as it is not yet clear how much the lockdown drinking has on it.
The direct correlation between deaths caused by alcohol, the number of emergency room admissions, and sales of alcohol per capita is clear proof of the potency of pandemic restrictions to boost the consumption of alcohol, as Dailymail reported.
Reasons stated for rise in alcohol drinking by experts
A May 2020 survey results indicate that 1 out of 10 older adults were drinking more per week than they were accustomed to before, and there is a chance it is two times higher if the individual being questioned stated they were lonely, suffered from anxiety, or depression.
And if somebody combined the three of them – loneliness, anxiety, and depression – the chance of them overdrinking is 3.8 times higher.