A recent study has found a direct correlation between an increase in retail sales of alcohol during the pandemic and an increase in the number of people waiting for a liver transplant.
During the pandemic, the national list for people seeking a liver transplant shot up 50% higher than predicted before the pandemic, the study from the University of Michigan found.
The study was released on Tuesday and was published in the JAMA Network Open. In the study, researchers looked at the number of new people on the U.S. organ transplant list from March 2020 to January 2021 with projections from before the pandemic.
Researchers then correlated monthly retail alcohol sales between January 2016 and 2021 and matched it with the U.S. organ transplant list.
"While we cannot confirm causality, this disproportionate increase in association with increasing alcohol sales may indicate a relationship with known increases in alcohol misuse during COVID-19," the researchers wrote. "This study provides evidence for an alarming increase in [alcoholic hepatitis] associated with increasing alcohol misuse during COVID-19 and highlights the need for public health interventions around excessive alcohol consumption."
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Other research has been done into the effects of the pandemic on alcohol use. One study reported that 1 in 5 Americans turned to "heavy drinking" to cope, USA Today reported.
Rand Corp. produced a study last fall that found the frequency of alcohol consumption in the U.S. rose 14% compared to before the pandemic. In addition, the study found that women in particular increased heavy drinking days by 41%.
However, other studies have found different results. For example, a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration survey published on Monday found different results.
Its survey found that American adults shared they had consumed the same amount of alcohol during the pandemic.
