For the first time since the onset of the pandemic, American drinking habits are showing signs of cooling off, though the recovery is far from uniform. According to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, overall alcohol use saw a modest dip of about one percent between 2022 and 2024. While this represents a positive shift following a sharp spike in consumption during the lockdown era, researchers warn that levels remain stubbornly higher than they were in 2018.
The decline is largely being driven by younger generations. Gen Z adults reported the most significant drop in general drinking, falling by more than five percent, while millennials saw a dramatic seventeen percent plunge in heavy drinking over the last two years. Men generally showed a larger overall decrease than women, although women experienced a steeper decline specifically within the category of heavy alcohol use. Despite these gains, many young adults are still drinking more today than they were before 2020.
The real cause for alarm lies with adults aged 50 to 64, where trends are moving in the opposite direction. Heavy drinking in this demographic has climbed steadily since 2018, marking an increase of more than one third over six years. Dr. Brian P. Lee, a liver transplant specialist at Keck Medicine of USC and lead author of the study, noted that this surge translates to roughly one million additional people in this age bracket engaging in heavy drinking. This is particularly worrying because older livers are significantly more susceptible to scarring and cirrhosis than those of twenty year olds.
Public health experts suggest that these patterns mirror historical reactions to national trauma, such as the spikes seen after the September 11 attacks. However, they point out that alcohol consumption had already been on an upward trajectory since 2000 long before COVID-19 hit. With alcohol related liver disease now serving as the primary driver for liver transplants in the United States and cancer deaths linked to booze doubling over thirty years, doctors fear that middle aged drinkers may be facing a looming health crisis exacerbated by decades of cumulative use.
