According to the study, the number of deaths due to cirrhosis has increased dramatically after 2009, increasing by 3.4% annually (Photo: David J. Phillip, AP

A new study published in a major medical journal by a research team at the University of Michigan asks if the Great Recession is responsible for a spike in liver disease related to alcohol in the years since 2009.

Assistant Professors In gastroenterology, Elliot Tapper and Neehar Parikh reviewed the privately collected statistics and US Census data to observe the trends in deaths from liver disease between 1999 and 2016.

Their general conclusions were that liver disease had become more common since 1999. cirrhosis jumped by 65% ​​during this period, while annual deaths due to hepatocellular carcinoma (a common form of liver cancer) have more than doubled.

It seems that the year 2009 marked a turning point in the data. The number of deaths due to cirrhosis has increased significantly after 2009, increasing by 3.4% per year. In the 25-34 age group, this trend was even more pronounced: the number of deaths increased by 10.5% each year. The researchers said it was "entirely motivated by alcohol-related liver disease."

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Tapper and Parikh concluded that increased rates of liver disease mortality were more pronounced in young people men. Referring to other research showing that young men are more likely to consume unemployed alcohol, they theorized that the Great Recession could be a cause of increased illness and mortality.

The study also observed that mortality: only one, Maryland, experienced a decrease during the period 1999-2016.

"Given that deteriorating trends began after 2008, a year marked by the global financial crisis and an economic recession in the United States, a differential economic impact on specific states may explain some of the results, "they wrote

The BMJ, an open access medical journal, published the study on July 18, 2018.

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