COVID-19 Pandemic, UK Recorded Deaths Due To Alcohol

Alcoholic drink illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Angie Garrett)

JAKARTA - The UK recorded a record increase in the number of deaths caused by alcohol abuse last year, which public health officials say is linked to the wider social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some 8.974 people died from alcohol-specific causes in 2020, or 18.6 percent more than in 2019, the biggest increase since records began in 2001, the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Previous data from health authorities in the UK had shown a 21 percent increase in deaths from alcoholic liver disease last year, as COVID-19 closed pubs but caused many heavy drinkers to consume more alcohol at home.

Meanwhile, from 2012 to 2019, the UK's alcohol death rate was stable, the ONS said.

"The fact that the death rate from major alcohol-related causes increased in 2020 suggests the increasing harm of alcohol is an impact of the wider pandemic," the public sector agency, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, said in a statement.

Pinpointing the factors driving the increase in mortality will take time, the ONS said.

The total volume of alcohol sold in the UK in 2020 fell slightly. But a survey in March 2021 showed an increase in the number of people admitting to drinking what health officials consider a dangerous amount, the equivalent of five bottles of wine a week for men, or three and a half for women.

In line with previous years, men are more than twice as likely to die from alcohol-specific causes as women.

To note, liver disease was the largest alcohol-specific cause of death, accounting for 78 percent of deaths, followed by mental and behavioral disorders at 12 percent and 'external causes' such as accidental poisoning at 6 percent.

Meanwhile, the death rate in Scotland and Northern Ireland is about 50 percent higher than in England or Wales.