Understandably, the covid-19 pandemic has pushed many people in the US to drink more, and it looks like that trend hasn’t quite stopped — at least not yet. New research finds that Americans’ alcohol consumption continues to be affected, and not in a good way.

The onset of the pandemic certainly changed our daily lives, and many people responded by drinking more alcohol; Alcohol consumption in the US and elsewhere has increased significantly through 2021. Fortunately, the worst of Covid-19 is now firmly behind us, but this new research suggests that the early years have a lasting impact on our drinking habits, increasing people’s risk of alcohol-related health problems such as liver disease and cancer.

Researchers analyzed data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a nationally representative survey conducted in person and by telephone with households across the country. They looked at responses collected between 2018 and 2022 regarding alcohol use. Just over 66% of Americans drank alcohol in 2018; By 2020, this proportion had increased to 69% of Americans; an absolute increase of almost 3%. Similarly, while nearly 5% of Americans reported binge drinking in 2018, more than 6% said the same in 2020. By 2022, both of these numbers essentially remained stable.

“Our results provide national data to bring greater attention to potential alcohol-related public health impacts remaining from the pandemic,” the researchers wrote in their paper. It was published In the magazine on Tuesday Annals of Internal Medicine.

Although these increases are small in absolute terms, Americans increasing drinking problem Even before the pandemic, the effects of increased pandemic drinking on our collective health could not be ignored. Other studies have shown a significant increase in deaths and injuries directly and was indirectly linked to alcohol in the early years of the pandemic. For example, a study conducted earlier this March found estimated He noted that approximately 180,000 annual deaths in the United States between 2020 and 2021 could be attributed to excessive alcohol use, a figure well above pre-pandemic baseline levels.

It is possible that alcohol consumption in the US has stabilized more recently due to the background stress of the pandemic (although fewer Covid-19 deaths have been reported in 2022 than in the first two years, there was a much sharper decline in 2020 ). 2023 and 2024). But even so, the impact of this increased drinking is likely to have a long shadow, as alcohol-related diseases such as cancer and liver damage can take years to manifest. Doctors need to be more proactive about finding and helping people at risk of unhealthy alcohol use, researchers say.

“We encourage healthcare providers to offer increased screening for harmful drinking as well as interventions for at-risk populations,” said lead researcher Brian Lee, a hepatologist and liver transplant specialist at the University of Southern California. expression from university.