Alcohol Use Disorder, Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease Up in Older U.S. Adults
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Dec. 2, 2024 -- The prevalence of and mortality from alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) increased among older U.S. adults, according to a study presented at The Liver Meeting, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, held from Nov. 15 to 19 in San Diego.
Pojsakorn Danpanichkul, M.D., from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, and colleagues examined temporal shifts in both the prevalence and mortality rates associated with ALD and AUD among older U.S. adults using data from the Global Burden of Disease Study (2010 to 2019).
The researchers found that in 2019, there were approximately 556,340 cases of AUD, 112,560 cases of alcohol-associated cirrhosis, and 3,720 cases of primary liver cancer from alcohol among older U.S. adults. While globally there were declines in age-standardized rates of prevalence and mortality, these measures increased in the United States. During the study period, there were increases in mortality from AUD (the annual percent change [APC], +1.63 percent), cirrhosis (APC, +0.56 percent), and primary liver cancer from alcohol (APC, +3.09 percent). Nearly half of U.S. states showed a rise in mortality from alcohol-associated cirrhosis.
"Public health strategies on ALD and AUD targeting the elderly are urgently needed," the authors write.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted December 2024
Read this next
Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease Linked to Risk for Sudden Hearing Loss
FRIDAY, June 20, 2025 -- Among older adults, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is associated with increased risk for sudden sensorineural hearing...
Alcoholic Liver Disease Mortality Increased Across Demographic Groups
TUESDAY, June 17, 2025 -- Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) mortality increased significantly from 2019 to 2022, according to a study published online June 11 in JAMA Network...
Low Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment Rates Seen in Cancer Survivors
THURSDAY, May 29, 2025 -- For U.S. adult cancer survivors with a new alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnosis, the one-year cumulative incidence of AUD treatment initiation was 14.3...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.