Covid-19 pandemic caused increase in UK alcohol deaths

News media tells us that the rate of fatalities from excess drinking in 2022 in the UK were 41% higher than in 2019 with women showing the biggest rise. It was a record high in 2022.

There were 16.6 deaths caused by alcohol per 100,000 in 2022 compared to 11.8. The information comes from the UK's Office for National Statistics.

The research indicated that those who were drinking quite a lot of alcohol before the pandemic increased their consumption during the pandemic.

It doesn't take a lot of imagination to understand why. The long lockdowns. The long periods of furlough during which, in the UK, people received 80% of their salary from the UK government grants. That proved far too expensive and it was far too generous in my view.

But it is clear that when a government allows people to do nothing for long periods of time while receiving a good income, they gradually disintegrate in terms of their personal care, well-being and structure in their life. People need the structure and discipline that work imparts on them. They may complain about work but they need it. People need it generally. People need purpose.

If there is no work there is no purpose anymore and you just slob in front of the television drinking beer and wine. That's my personal view and I think it is an accurate one.

As an aside, Jane, the alcoholic who is the subject matter of this blog, did not, as far as I am aware, increase her alcohol intake during Covid-19. She is a binge alcoholic. This may be why. Her alcoholism runs on a clock which is ticking. After two or three months of not bingeing the clock has ticked around to the hour when she must start. That's how binge alcoholism works but the interval between bingeing varies between person and person.

Here is some extra information on this topic from The Times newspaper

There were 10,048 deaths from alcohol-specific causes in 2022 which is the highest number on record according to the Office for National Statistics. This was 32.8% higher than in 2019 when there were 7565 deaths. And the figure is 4.2 higher than in 2021 when there were 9,641 alcohol-specific deaths.

David Mais a health petition at the Office for National Statistics said: "Alcohol-specific deaths rose sharply with the onset of the pandemic, and today's results show a continuation of that trend, with deaths around a third higher than in 2019. Research has suggested that people already drinking at high levels before the pandemic were the most likely to have increased their drinking during this period. This is likely a factor in the increase in alcohol-specific deaths registrations we have seen in 2022. Alcoholic liver disease was the leading cause of these deaths and as with previous years rates were much higher among men."

There were calls for the government to do something about it and for the government to take responsibility. It has the power said to put preventative measures in place including a "proper regulation of alcohol marketing, clear alcohol labelling, and a minimum price for a unit of alcohol" according to Dr. Richard Piper, the chief executive of Alcohol Change UK.