Using a large-scale population-based prospective cohort design, we found a substantial increase in mortality in both men and women registered with AUD. Using a co-relative design, we showed that this excess mortality appears to arise both from the predispositions of the person who develops AUD and from the direct result of the AUD itself. The effects of the predispositions were more prominent early in the life course and in the earlier years of AUD. The direct effect of AUD on mortality became progressively more important later in life and later in the course of AUD. These results have clear implications for interventions that seek to reduce the substantially elevated rates of mortality in those with AUD.
