Heart Disease, Stroke and Alcohol-Related Death Toll Spiked During COVID-19

Deaths resulting from stroke, heart disease and alcohol rose significantly during the pandemic.

As the COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. nears 1 million, research is beginning to illuminate the manner in which the pandemic has contributed to a rising death rate from other causes, including heart disease, stroke and alcohol. While non-pandemic deaths, which also increased during 2020, often lacked acknowledgment, they were not always unrelated – many were influenced by loneliness or a lack of access to services.

According to one study recently published in JAMA Network Open, deaths from heart disease increased 5.8% from 2019 to 2020, more than half the increase seen over the eight years from 2011 to 2019. Meanwhile, stroke deaths rose by 6.8%, more than one-third the 2011-2019 rate of 16.3%. The risk-associated (as opposed to age-associated) death toll, which had been trending downward, also saw significant growth from 2019-2020.

Dr. Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, president of the American Heart Association and co-author of the study, told the Miami Herald that stroke and heart-disease related deaths increased “precisely because of the disruption to medical care that occurred,” and warned the trend is likely to continue.“This is really a red flag warning that we must do better, we must get our patients back into care in the health system and also get people focusing again on those very important things that will improve their heart disease and stroke risk,” he said.

Many people struggling with alcoholism relapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, a second study published this month in JAMA found that alcohol-related deaths (including those resulting from accidents and liver disease) increased by 25% in 2020 compared to 2019 – a vast difference from the average annual increase of 3.6% from 1999 to 2019.

“Stress is the primary factor in relapse, and there is no question there was a big increase in self-reported stress, and big increases in anxiety and depression, and planet-wide uncertainty about what was coming next,” Aaron White, a senior scientific advisor at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and an author of the report, told the New York Times. ”That’s a lot of pressure on people who are trying to maintain recovery.”

The death toll due to drug overdose also increased significantly in recent years –particularly during the pandemic, when researchers reported an increase of nearly 30% in the year ending in April 2021 over a year prior.