Some of that knowledge may track back to the COVID-19 pandemic. “There was a lot of messaging around young adults who were dying more from alcohol-related harm during the pandemic,” says Lee. “So they could have been targeted for this.”
It’s seniors, however, who could most use the same kind of public information, especially as their drinking rates go up—because the older people get, whether they drink or not, the more likely they are to contract most diseases. “This age group faces some of the greatest risks of harm from alcohol, including cirrhosis and alcohol-related cancers,” Lee said in the statement.
Public information campaigns are just one of the possible causes of the drop in drinking among young people. It’s also possible that Gen Z and Millennials are simply swapping one intoxicant for another. “The idea of substitution is a leading theory,” says Lee. “With the legalization of cannabis, are people using that rather than alcohol?”
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