Alcohol—What it Is and What it Does - Alcohol-related Deaths

In the United States 19,928 people died of alcohol-induced causes in 2002 (Kochanek et al., "Deaths: Final Data for 2002," National Vital Statistics Reports, vol. 53, no. 5, October 12, 2004). This category included deaths from dependent use of alcohol, nondependent use of alcohol, and accidental alcohol poisoning. It excluded accidents, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to alcohol use as well as deaths due to fetal alcohol syndrome. The age-adjusted death rate for males was 3.4 times the rate for females. Slightly more than twelve thousand people died from alcoholic liver disease in 2002.