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Alcohol, social factors and mortality among young men
Author(s) -
ANDRÉASSON SVEN,
ROMELSJÖ ANDERS,
ALLEBECK PETER
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
british journal of addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0952-0481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1991.tb01843.x
Subject(s) - demography , relative risk , cohort , medicine , confidence interval , cohort study , injury prevention , alcohol consumption , poison control , suicide prevention , alcohol , gerontology , environmental health , biology , biochemistry , sociology
In a 20‐year follow‐up the association between alcohol consumption, social and personal background factors and mortality was studied in a cohort of 49464 Swedish conscripts. The relative risk of death among high consumers (those consuming more than 250 g alcohol/week at conscription) was 2.8 (95% confidence interval 2.2–3.7) compared with moderate consumers (1–100 g/week). Deaths caused by direct toxic effects of alcohol were few, less than 5%. Instead suicides and accidents predominated. Abstainers had a slightly lower mortality than moderate consumers, with a relative risk of 0.8 (0.6–1.1), due to a significantly lower risk for traffic deaths. High consumers of alcohol had more than twice as many social and personal risk factors for premature death compared with the cohort as a whole. Yet presence of social risk factors added little to the already increased relative risk of death among high consumers.