Kilian, Carolin and Carr, Sinclair and Schulte, Bernd and Manthey, Jakob (2023) Increased alcohol-specific mortality in Germany during COVID-19: State-level trends from 2010 to 2020. Drug and Alcohol Review, 42, (3), pp. 633-640. https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.13573.
External website: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/d...
INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 pandemic may have led to an increase in the alcohol-specific mortality. Against this backdrop, the aim of this report is to explore alcohol-specific mortality trends in Germany of the years 2010 to 2020.
METHOD
Alcohol-specific mortality data aggregated by sex, 5-year age groups and state were collected from the annual cause-of-death statistics and analysed descriptively by visual inspection.
RESULTS
The overall alcohol-specific mortality rate (age-standardised) has mainly decreased between 2010 and 2020. However, increased alcohol-specific mortality rates for the year 2020 compared to 2019 were found for both, women (+4.8%) and men (+5.5%), particularly in age groups between 40 and 69 years. Changes in alcohol-specific mortality rates differed between federated states, with steeper increases in East Germany.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Different mechanisms related to the increase in alcohol consumption, particularly among high-risk drinkers, and reduced resources in health care may have led to an increase in alcohol-specific mortality in Germany in 2020. Despite the recent decline in the alcohol-specific mortality in Germany, an increase in the death toll was observed in 2020.
G Health and disease > Disorder by cause > Communicable / infectious disease > Viral disease / infection > Coronavirus (COVID-19)
P Demography, epidemiology, and history > Population dynamics > Substance related mortality / death
VA Geographic area > International
VA Geographic area > Europe > Germany
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