ALCOHOL
Another symptom of growing despair among the American population, The New York Times reported on a September 2020 study in JAMA which found that, “Americans increased the frequency of their alcohol consumption by 14 percent compared to a year earlier.” This was an early signal that Americans were turning to alcohol to cope with non-stop pandemic- and lockdown-induced stress. The JAMA study also found “a 41 percent increase in the number of days on which women drank heavily, defined as having four or more drinks in a couple of hours.”
In February 2021, the American Psychological Association (APA) published a national survey finding that 23% of adults reported drinking more in the year preceding to manage stress, but among parents, rates were even higher; 29% of mothers and 48% of fathers reported drinking more to cope. “Nearly half of mothers who still have children home for remote learning (47%) reported their mental health has worsened.”
It’s no surprise that increased alcohol use brings myriad other detrimental social and health outcomes. The Times reporting continued:
“psychological damage from the past year has caused sharp declines in physical health, including widespread weight gain and disruptions in sleep. Hospitals around the country have reported an increase in admissions for hepatitis, cirrhosis, liver failure and other forms of alcohol-related diseases.”
Before the pandemic, CDC reported that alcohol-related causes were responsible for the deaths of 380 Americans per day, or more than 138,000 every year. By May 2022, a review of mortality in the US due to alcohol-use disorder (AUD) found a staggering surge compared to previous years. In 2020, AUD-related deaths were 25% higher than history would suggest; in 2021, researchers saw 22% more. Perhaps most tragically, “the youngest age group (25-44 years) demonstrated the largest increase in AUD mortality (40.47% in 2020 vs 33.95% in 2021) across all age groups.”
The increase in drinking and alcohol-related fatalities extended to the roadways as well. Deaths attributed to driving under the influence (DUI) rose nearly 15% nationwide from 2019 to 2020, according to the DUI Report from Zutobi, an online drivers’ education resource website. The report called 2020 “the worst year since 2005.” Maine was ranked 6th-worst in Zutobi’s “DUI Severity Score,” with 28% more DUI-related deaths in 2020 year-over-year which made up nearly 40% of all road fatalities. Authors noted that this spike in drunk driving “could be because of the increased loneliness that came with COVID 19 and the shutdowns, leading to increased consumption in the home.”
This led the Bangor Daily News to declare that “Maine has an OUI problem,” noting that CDC data show “Maine had the highest rate of alcoholic liver disease deaths in the Northeast – including New England – in 2020…the 11th-highest rate of such deaths in the country.”