Mortality due to cirrhosis has been increasing in the US since 2009, with individuals aged 25-34 years experiencing the greatest relative increase in mortality due to deaths from alcoholic cirrhosis, a recent study found. The observational cohort study included death certificate data from the Vital Statistics Cooperative, and population data from the US Census Bureau compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (1999-2016). The primary outcome measure was deaths from cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), with trends evaluated using joinpoint regression. Researchers found:

• From 1999 to 2016 in the US, annual deaths from cirrhosis increased by 65%, while annual deaths from HCC doubled.
• People aged 25-34 have experienced the greatest relative increase in mortality, driven by deaths due to alcoholic cirrhosis.
• During the study period, white Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans experienced the greatest increase in deaths from cirrhosis.