https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 … in-englandlockdown drinking could cause "25,000 excess deaths".
Both studies analysed the potential long-term impact of the trend towards heavier drinking. One, by academics at the University of Sheffield, found that under a worst-case scenario – in which those people keep drinking at Covid-elevated levels – an estimated 25,192 extra deaths could occur, along with 972,382 hospital admissions and a cost of £5.2bn to the NHS by 2042. It was based on modelling of 45 different alcohol-related health conditions.
The other, by the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS), yielded more conservative results. The IAS, in conjunction with Lumen Health, found that, again under the most pessimistic scenario, England may see 9,914 extra premature deaths and 147,892 additional cases of people left seriously ill with nine drink-related conditions, including breast cancer, liver cirrhosis and high blood pressure.
“These figures highlight that the pandemic’s impact on our drinking behaviour is likely to cast a long shadow on our health and paint a worrying picture at a time when NHS services are already under huge pressure due to treatment backlogs,” said Colin Angus, a senior research fellow at Sheffield, who led its study.
Sadie Boniface, the IAS’s head of research, said: “Changes in alcohol use during the pandemic led to a 20% rise in alcohol-specific deaths in England in 2020, and the worrying trends continue.
“Our study projects that if alcohol consumption stays at current levels … inequalities in deaths from alcohol will also grow wider than they already are. The results of the studies should be a wake-up call to take action.”
Alcohol caused 10,700 deaths and 640,000 hospital admissions in England, and cost the NHS £2.7bn to treat, in 2019, the year before Covid struck.
those yearly death figures from drinking are almost on par with the cartels' wars in narco-state mexico. wowsers.
interestingly, in other news, gen-z'ers and millennials are the most teetotal generation in decades. record levels of abstinence in 18–25 year olds; something like 30% just don't drink at all, even moderately in social occasions. they are also consistently the generations with the highest levels of drug use in other categories.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 … -off-boozemaybe they're just cottoning on, as generations began to do so with cigarettes and nicotine, to the fact that alcohol ... just isn't worth ruining your health and life over? and there are better alternatives? dun dun dun ... ! it makes boomers' reliance on some form of alcohol consumption in just about any social interaction seem a bit lame, eh? all that 'self-medicating'.
Last edited by uziq (2022-07-25 22:37:15)