Home » Alcohol, Drug Abuse Driving Mortality Rates Up In White Americans Aged 45-54

Alcohol, Drug Abuse Driving Mortality Rates Up In White Americans Aged 45-54

By  //  November 4, 2015

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The findings of this new research on death rates of middle-aged white Americans as reported on by Medical News Today should be a wake-up call for the medical community and society at large.

The stunning implication of the findings are that death rates are rising at alarming rates from behavioral conditions and diseases which are essentially preventable.

The physiological consequences of alcohol abuse, drug overdoses (poisoning) and suicides receive far less public attention than other diseases of much less frequency.

In fact, the data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that more white adults died from poisonings by 2013 than lung cancer, with suicide rates the next most common cause of death.

— Dr. Jim Palermo, Editor-in-Chief

Death Rates On The Rise For Middle-Aged White Americans

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Data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that more white adults died from poisonings or drug overdoses by 2013 than lung cancer, with suicide rates the next most common cause of death.

MEDICAL NEWS TODAY — There was a significant rise in death rates among middle-aged white Americans between 1998-2013 as a result of drugs and alcohol, suicide and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, according to a new study by researchers from Princeton University in New Jersey.

For decades, death rates in the US have been declining. But the new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds this has not been the case for white Americans aged 45-54.

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Researchers say alcohol and drug abuse may be partly to blame for a rise in death rates among middle-aged white Americans between 1998-2013. (MNT Image)

Study authors Anne Case and Angus Deaton, of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Department of Economics at Princeton, say their findings represent an overlooked “epidemic” comparable to the number of deaths in the US caused by AIDS.

The researchers reached their findings by conducting a review of data from individual death records in the US, the American Community Surveys, the Current Population Surveys, the Human Mortality Database and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Wonder Compressed and Detailed Mortality Files.

CLICK HERE to read the complete article and learn more about the “overlooked ‘epidemic'” and the potential reasons for increased mortality from drug and alcohol poisoning, and suicide on MedicalNewsToday.com.