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Moderate Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and Quantification of Social Behavior in Adult Rats
Published on: December 14, 2014
Effects of alcohol consumption on employment and social outcomes: a Mendelian randomisation study
Desmond D Campbell1, Michael Green1,2, Neil M Davies3,4,5,6
1MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Clarice Pears Building, 90 Byres Road, Glasgow, G12 8TB, United Kingdom.
Aims:
Alcohol consumption is associated with socioeconomic disadvantage, but causality is unclear. We used Mendelian randomisation (MR) to estimate the effect of alcohol consumption on socioeconomic and employment-related outcomes.
Methods:
We conducted observational analyses and two-sample MR analyses using 230 775 working-age participants (aged 40+) of White British ethnicity/ancestry (54.5% male) from the UK Biobank.
Outcomes:
employment status (employed vs not; employed vs sickness/disability, unemployment, retirement or caring for home/family); weekly hours worked (among employed); deprivation (Townsend Deprivation Index); highest educational attainment; and household income.
Exposures:
alcohol consumption (units per week), hazardous alcohol consumption assessed by Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-C score and Alcohol use disorder (AUD).
Results:
MR analyses suggested that alcohol exposure increased the risk of living in a more deprived area. A unit per week increase in alcohol consumption increased deprivation by 0.31 deciles (95% CI: 0.10, 0.52). A unit increase in liability for AUD increased deprivation by 0.09 deciles (95% CI: 0.02, 0.16). Findings, and often effect directions, differed by sex. In men, increased alcohol consumption decreased household income and increased the risk of not being in paid employment and unemployment. In women, increased alcohol consumption decreased the risk of not being in paid employment, retirement, and caring for home/family. Effects were generally more detrimental for men than women. This is especially evident for not being in paid employment, household income, and deprivation.
Conclusions:
Alcohol consumption may increase the risk of living in deprived neighbourhoods. It may have deleterious effects on employment (including unemployment) and income, but these differ strongly by sex, largely affecting men.
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