Although men are still more likely to die from an alcohol-related disease, the gap is narrowing. In an article published earlier this year, Trends in Alcohol-Related Deaths by Sex in the US, 1999-2020, age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) for males increased by 12.5% per year among male individuals, but increased by 14.7% per year among female individuals.
Other recent studies have shown increases in alcohol use, high-risk drinking, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) among women.
There are a number of reasons why alcohol has a greater effect on women than it does on men:
- While alcohol is miscible in water, it is not in fat. With women’s higher fat content, any alcohol they ingest gets concentrated into a smaller volume of water content in their bodies;
- Women, as a group, are smaller and lighter than men, so a given amount of alcohol will be concentrated in a smaller volume of water;
- Women lack gastric alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme that starts the breakdown of alcohol into acetaldehyde even before it reaches the bloodstream. As a result, a greater amount of alcohol gets delivered to the bloodstream in women than in men.
Because of these differences, women with AUD face an elevated risk of developing liver diseases, circulatory disorders, breast cancer, fertility problems, and early menopause.
The results of the aforementioned study indicate that between 1999 and 2020, a total of 605,948 individuals died in the US due to alcohol-related causes. The sex disparity in alcohol-related mortality, i.e. men being 2.88 times more likely to die from alcohol-related causes, persisted across age, race and ethnicity, census region and cause of death subcategories.
In an article appearing in National Geographic (Alcohol is killing more women than ever before, published August 22, 2023), the author, Meryl Davids Landau, writes “A recent government survey found 49 percent of women drank in the prior month, compared to 55 percent of men. Women in their thirties and forties, in particular, are now drinking more than male counterparts”. (Emphasis mine.)
Karaye, I.M.; Maleki, N.; Hasson, N.; Yunusa, I. (2023). Trends in Alcohol-Related Deaths by Sex in the US, 1999-2020. JAMA Network Open. 2023, 6(7):e2326346. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.26346.
Landau, M.D. (2023). Alcohol is killing more women than ever before. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/alcohol-effects-worse-women
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