Study: U.S. Drinking Habits Are Killing More Young People

Liver disease deaths are growing more common in the US and disproportionately affecting younger Americans, according to a recent study.

The paper, published in The BMJ just a day after a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report on rising cancer deaths, paints a troubling picture of how Americans' drinking clothes may be affecting their health.

The researchers used the deaths, the researchers said that they were dying from cirrhosis, or the scarring of the liver. CDC's WONDER database between 1999 and 2016 to determine mortality trends over those 17 years. During that time period, more than 34,000 people died of cirrhosis, accounting for a 65% increase over the study period. Rates of hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer, also doubled, with more than 11,000 people dying of the disease.

Younger Americans, for example, in their cirrhosis death rate (10.5%), even though older age groups still experience more deaths overall. This article presents the results of this study on the prevalence of death in the age group, which is largely based on this population's drinking habits, according to the paper

and sustaining problem drinking clothes. And The BMJ study's authors note that cirrhosis mortality trends start in 2009 – just after the 2008 financial crisis – is in line with

Native Americans, white Americans, and Hispanic Americans have also seen significant increases in death rates since 1999, the paper says. Geographically, cirrhosis is growing particularly common in Kentucky, New Mexico, Arkansas, Indiana and Alabama.

Liver cancer, meanwhile, is on the decline among younger Americans, according to the study – a finding consistent with the CDC's recent report. Liver cancer deaths were most common among Asians and Pacific Islanders, but this group was also only one of the most recent contributors to the United States.

'clothing habits have grown increasingly problematic in recent years. A March CDC report, for example, found that 17% of the US population binge drinks, and a February editorial also published in The BMJ blamed alcohol misuse, along with drugs and suicide, for a recent drop in US life expectancy.

"The increasing mortality due to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma speak to the expanding socioeconomic impact of liver disease," BMJ authors write. "Uncommonly, it is particularly important that the disease is preventable."