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Alcohol and mortality: is there a U-shaped relation in elderly people?
1Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital.
Objective:
to assess the relation between alcohol intake and mortality among seven cohorts of middle-aged and elderly Danes.
Design:
Prospective population study with baseline assessment of alcohol- and tobacco consumption, educational level and body mass index, and a mean of 11.5 years follow-up of mortality.
Subjects:
16304 men and women aged 50 years or more.
Main Outcome Measure:
number and time of deaths from 1974 to 1995 as ascertained by the national central person register.
Results:
the effect of alcohol intake on mortality did not differ between middle-aged (50-64 years, mean = 56.6 years) and elderly subjects (>64 years old, mean = 69.9 years). There was a U-shaped risk function in both age groups, which persisted also when adjusting for age, sex, smoking habits, level of education and body mass index. Abstaining women had a relative risk of 1.29 (95% confidence limits 1.17-1.42) as compared with light drinkers (1-6 (drinks per week), while the relative risk for abstaining men was 1.22 (95% confidence limits; 1.08 to 1.37) as compared with light drinkers. Heavy drinking women (>28 drinks per week) had a relative risk of 1.23 (95% confidence limits; 0.85 to 1.78) and heavy drinking men (more than 69 drinks per week) had a relative risk of 2.11 (95% confidence limits 1.66-2.69), both compared with light drinkers.
Conclusion:
among the middle-aged and elderly women and men, a light alcohol intake is associated with lower mortality than abstention or heavy drinking.