Health consequences of alcohol use in rural America.

Alcohol abuse and dependence are costly to society in both human and economic terms. In 1989, 108,458 deaths in the United States were alcohol related (Stinson et al. 1993), accounting for about 5 percent of all deaths that year and making alcohol the fourth leading cause of death after heart disease, cancer, and stroke (National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) 1994a). These deaths represent in excess of 1.5 million years of potential life lost to age 65 and nearly 3 billion years of potential life lost to full life expectancy (Schultz et al. 1990). Alcohol-related morbidity also presents a significant burden to the Nation’s health care system. Studies suggest that between 15 and 30 percent of patients in short-stay (average length of stay of fewer than 30 days) general hospitals have alcohol problems, regardless of their admitting diagnosis (Umbricht-Schneiter et al. 1991). In addition, families of alcoholics consume more health care services than do those of nonalcoholics (Holder 1987).