--- title: Study: U.S. Drinking Habits Are Killing More Young People description: A BMJ study says deaths from cirrhosis and liver cancer are on the rise, with liver disease increases among young Americans particularly. canonical: https://time.com/5345069/liver-disease-deaths-study/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-21T17:45:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:55:02.712Z article:section: Health og:title: America's Drinking Habits Are Killing More Young People, Study Suggests og:description: Cirrhosis and liver cancer are getting more common across the board og:url: https://time.com/5345069/liver-disease-deaths-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0436b327eb7503d5/698935e3656a3fc189bd5045/alcohol-bottles.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4961 og:image:height: 2791 og:image:alt: Bottle of liquor og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: America's Drinking Habits Are Killing More Young People, Study Suggests twitter:description: Cirrhosis and liver cancer are getting more common across the board twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0436b327eb7503d5/698935e3656a3fc189bd5045/alcohol-bottles.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # America's Drinking Habits Are Killing More Young People, Study Suggests > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jul 21, 2018 5:45 PM UTC  Tetra Images—Getty Images/Tetra images RF  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jul 21, 2018 5:45 PM UTC Liver disease deaths are growing more common in the U.S. and disproportionately affecting younger Americans, [according to a recent study](https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k2817). The paper, published in _The BMJ_ just a day after a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [report on rising liver cancer death rates](http://time.com/5341053/liver-cancer-deaths/), paints a troubling picture of how [Americans’ drinking habits](http://time.com/4893108/alcohol-use-disorder-drinking/) may be affecting their health. While the new study couldn’t prove causation, the researchers say drinking is likely to blame for the growing number of adults aged 24 to 35 who are dying from cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver. The researchers used deaths logged in the CDC’s WONDER database between 1999 and 2016 to determine mortality trends during those 17 years. During that time period, more than 34,000 people died of cirrhosis, accounting for a 65% increase over the study period. Rates of hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer, also doubled, with more than 11,000 people dying of the disease. Although nearly every demographic saw increases in cirrhosis beginning in 2009, after a period of decline from 1999 to 2008, the trends were particularly stark among certain demographics. Younger Americans, for example, saw the largest increase in their cirrhosis death rate (10.5%), even though older age groups still experience more deaths overall. Cirrhosis now accounts for about 1.4% of deaths in the 24-35 age group, largely driven by this population’s drinking habits, according to the paper. A [separate study published this week](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14659891.2018.1497101?journalCode=ijsu20) found that younger adults are at particularly high risk of starting and sustaining problem drinking habits. And _The BMJ_ study’s authors note that the cirrhosis mortality trend’s start in 2009 — just after the 2008 financial crisis — is in line with [research that has found](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1836409?dopt=Abstract) young men to be particularly susceptible to alcohol misuse after unemployment or financial strain. Native Americans, white Americans and Hispanic Americans have also seen significant increases in liver disease death rates since 1999, the paper says. Geographically, cirrhosis is growing particularly common in Kentucky, New Mexico, Arkansas, Indiana and Alabama. Liver cancer, meanwhile, is on the decline among younger Americans, and on the rise among those in older age groups, according to the study — a finding consistent with the CDC’s recent report. Liver cancer deaths were most common among Asians and Pacific Islanders, but that group was also the only one to see a slight dip in its death rate during the study period. The two recent reports add to a growing body of evidence that Americans’ drinking habits have grown increasingly problematic in recent years. A [March CDC report](http://time.com/5202859/binge-drinking-cdc-report/), for example, found that 17% of the U.S. population binge drinks, and a [February editorial](http://time.com/5138349/drugs-alcohol-suicide-life-expectancy/) also published in _The BMJ_ blamed alcohol misuse, along with drugs and suicide, for a recent [drop in U.S. life expectancy](http://time.com/5075569/life-expectancy-united-states/). “The increasing mortality due to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma speak to the expanding socioeconomic impact of liver disease,” the _BMJ_ authors write. “Adverse trends in liver related mortality are particularly unfortunate given that in most cases the liver disease is preventable.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5345069/liver-disease-deaths-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5345069/liver-disease-deaths-study/"},"headline":"America's Drinking Habits Are Killing More Young People, Study Suggests","datePublished":"2018-07-21T17:45:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:55:02.712Z","description":"Cirrhosis and liver cancer are getting more common across the board","url":"https://time.com/5345069/liver-disease-deaths-study/","keywords":["Research","onetime","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0436b327eb7503d5/698935e3656a3fc189bd5045/alcohol-bottles.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0436b327eb7503d5/698935e3656a3fc189bd5045/alcohol-bottles.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bottle of liquor","caption":"Bottle of liquor","creditText":"Tetra Images—Getty Images/Tetra images RF","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5345069/liver-disease-deaths-study/","name":"America's Drinking Habits Are Killing More Young People, Study Suggests"}}]}] ```