Japanese alcoholic beverage and all cause mortality in Japanese adult men

This article examines whether an association is found between quantity of alcohol consumed and all cause mortality, and a relation is detected between types of alcoholic beverage and all cause mortality in Japanese male adults. A cohort study was performed in three towns located in two former coal mine areas and a rural area in Fukuoka. A mail survey was carried out between 1988 and 1990, and was extended in a follow-up period to 1995 (two towns) and 1999 (one town). 6,652 Japanese men aged from 40 to 69 years responded to a questionnaire that included alcohol consumption and smoking habit. The data were analysed with Cox's proportional hazards model. As regards an association between all cause mortality and quantity of alcohol consumed, statistically significant relations were recognized in occasional drinkers and drinkers with less than 25g ethanol per day (hazard ratio= 0.71, 95% CI: 0.50-0.99; hazard ratio= 0.51, 95% CI: 0.29-0.88, respectively). With respect to drinkers with 25-50g/day and > or =50g/day, no significant relation was observed in the risk for all cause mortality. Comparing all cause mortality for daily drinkers and nondrinkers with respect to the beverage types, a risk was lower for daily drinkers than for nondrinkers with every type of beverage studied. In particular, there was a statistically significant adverse association for all cause mortality among subjects who reported drinking Japanese sake compared with nondrinkers (hazard ratio= 0.45, 95% CI: 0.30-0.68). Alcohol consumption (particularly Japanese sake) is likely to be associated with a reduced hazardous ratio of all cause mortality.