Deaths from liver disease increase among young Americans

After adjustment for age and other factors, the study – published Wednesday in the BMJ – found that deaths from cirrhosis in the United States increased by 65% ​​and deaths from liver cancer from 1999 to 2016. deaths related to cirrhosis increased for each ethnic group and for both men and women.

From 2009 to 2016, the largest increase in cirrhosis mortality rate was among 25- to 34-year-olds, according to Dr. Elliot Tapper, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan and the first author on paper.

"We were struck by how the current concept of the person developing cirrhosis does not quite match what we see," he said. "It was really striking for us to have people younger than us in our clinic dying of cirrhosis."

Cirrhosis, scarring of the liver, occurs when toxins such as alcohol or excess calories invade the liver. scars.

Potentially life-threatening complications can occur from cirrhosis, including fluid accumulation in the stomach, formation of varicose veins and the spread of toxins to the brain, causing that to occur. we call a coma of the liver. The disease also increases the risk of liver cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer deaths.

The new study examined publicly available data from the United States Vital Statistics Cooperative for the years 1999 to 2016. Overall, researchers found that the age-adjusted mortality of cirrhosis was 12 , 18 per 100,000 people. Mortality increases by 3.4% from 2008 to 2016.

The increase in mortality due to cirrhosis was greater in Kentucky, New Mexico and Arkansas, according to the study .

The researchers compared changes in mortality from alcohol-related cirrhosis states to their changes in alcohol-related disorders. Many of the states that reported increasing rates of alcohol-related cirrhosis also had rising rates of alcohol use disorders, and vice versa. Because their study was observational, however, they could not confirm that the two trends were related.

In addition to its observational nature, Tapper said that a potential limitation of the study came from its use of death records, which were found to be inaccurate about 10% of the time.

Dr. Farhad Islami, the scientific director of research on cancer surveillance at the American Cancer Society, said the study's findings revealed an interesting trend between excessive alcohol consumption and rates deaths from cirrhosis in young people. the death rate increased the most among the population among young people, the number of young people dying of cirrhosis was much more modest: in 2016, cirrhosis accounted for 1.4% of deaths between 25 and 34 years of age, according to the report. ;study. Islami said that inaccurate mortality reports for this age group could have inadvertently given the false appearance of an upward trend.

"What you understood from our study is not a contradiction of what they do, in fact, it's a confirmation of what's going on." they found, "said Tapper. The two studies together provide a clearer picture of the needs of the patient with cirrhosis, he said: liver cancer screening and intensive treatment to prevent other diseases associated with cirrhosis. "