One in 10 deaths among U.S. adults due to excessive drinking

Excessive drinking accounted for one in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20 to 64 years in the United States and cost the country about 224 billion U.S. dollars per year, a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday.

The study published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease found that excessive alcohol use resulted in approximately 88,000 deaths in the United States per year from 2006 to 2010, and shortened the lives of those who died by about 30 years on average.

"These deaths were due to health effects from drinking too much over time, such as breast cancer, liver disease, and heart disease; and health effects from drinking too much in a short period of time, such as violence, alcohol poisoning, and motor vehicle crashes," the CDC said in a statement.

"In total, there were 2.5 million years of potential life lost each year due to excessive alcohol use," it said.

Nearly 70 percent of deaths due to excessive drinking involved working-age adults, and about 70 percent of the deaths involved males, the study said.

According to the CDC report, excessive drinking includes binge drinking, heavy drinking and any alcohol use by pregnant women or those under the minimum legal drinking age of 21.