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Health-associated changes in drinking: a period prevalence study of the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities (ARIC)
M L Eigenbrodt1, F D Fuchs, R G Hutchinson
1Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27514, USA. meigenbr@sph.unc.edu
Preventive Medicine
|July 18, 2000
Summary
Poor health often leads to reduced alcohol consumption, potentially biasing studies on alcohol
Area of Science:
- Epidemiology
- Public Health
- Alcohol Research
Background:
- Investigated potential bias in alcohol consumption studies.
- Hypothesized that poor health influences drinking habits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the association between health status and changes in alcohol consumption.
- To determine if health decline precedes drinking cessation.
Main Methods:
- Analyzed data from 12,562 participants (African- and European-American) aged 45-64 in the ARIC Study.
- Assessed drinking status and health (perceived and chronic disease) at two time points (1987-1995).
- Used logistic regression to model the link between health decline and drinking changes.
Main Results:
- Drinking cessation was more prevalent in individuals reporting poor health.
- Nondrinkers rarely initiated drinking, irrespective of their health status.
- Associations varied by ethnicity and gender depending on health measures used.
Conclusions:
- Findings support the hypothesis that declining health leads to changes in alcohol consumption.
- This relationship may introduce bias into alcohol benefit/risk studies.
- Bias may persist even when using lifetime abstainers as a reference group.
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