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Prospective Study of Alcohol Consumption in the United States: Quantity, Frequency, and Cause‐Specific Mortality
Author(s) -
Breslow Rosalind A.,
Graubard Barry I.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2007.00595.x
Subject(s) - medicine , quartile , confidence interval , demography , prospective cohort study , relative risk , alcohol consumption , cohort study , alcohol , biochemistry , chemistry , sociology
Background: Alcohol average volume (quantity multiplied by frequency) has been associated with mortality in drinkers. However, average volume may mask associations due to quantity or frequency alone. Methods: We prospectively assessed relationships between alcohol quantity and frequency, and mortality from all‐causes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other‐causes in a cohort created by linking the 1988 National Health Interview Survey (response rate 87%) to the National Death Index through 2002. Participants were 20,765 current drinkers age ≥ 18 years. At 14‐year follow‐up 2,547 had died. Results: For quantity, among men who consumed ≥5 drinks (compared to 1 drink) on drinking days, adjusted relative risks (RR) of mortality were: for cardiovascular disease, 1.30 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96–1.75; p for linear trend ( p ‐trend) = 0.0295], for cancer, 1.53 (95% CI 1.11–2.09; p ‐trend = 0.0026), and for other‐causes, 1.42 (95% CI 1.08–1.87; p ‐trend = 0.0029); among women for other‐causes, 2.88 (95% CI 1.61–5.12; p ‐trend = 0.0010). For frequency, among men in the highest frequency quartile (compared to the lowest), RR were: for cardiovascular disease, 0.79 (95% CI 0.63–0.99; p ‐trend = 0.0330), for cancer, 1.23 (95% CI 0.95–1.59; p ‐trend = 0.0461), and for other‐causes, 1.30 (95% CI 1.01–1.67; p ‐trend = 0.0070); among women, for cancer, 1.65 (95% CI 1.12–2.45, p ‐trend = 0.0031). Average volume obscured effects of quantity alone and frequency alone, particularly for cardiovascular disease in men where quantity and frequency trended in opposite directions. Conclusions: Alcohol quantity and frequency were independently associated with cause‐specific mortality. Accumulating evidence of their differential effects may, in the future, be useful for clinical and public health recommendations.