RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Components of alcohol use and all-cause mortality
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 129270
DO 10.1101/129270
A1 Sarah M. Hartz
A1 Mary Oehlert
A1 Amy C. Horton
A1 Richard Grucza
A1 Sherri L. Fisher
A1 Karl G. Nelson
A1 Scott W. Sumerall
A1 P. Chad Neal
A1 Patrice Regnier
A1 Guoqing Chen
A1 Alexander Williams
A1 Jagriti Bhattarai
A1 Bradley Evanoff
A1 Laura J. Bierut
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/21/129270.abstract
AB Importance Current recommendations for low-risk drinking are based on drinking quantity: up to one drink daily for women and two drinks daily for men. Drinking frequency has not been independently examined for its contribution to mortality.Objective To evaluate the impact of drinking frequency on all-cause mortality after adjusting for drinks per day and binge drinking behavior.Design Two independent observational studies with self-reported alcohol use and subsequent all-cause mortality: the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), and data from Veteran’s Health Administration clinics (VA).Setting Epidemiological sample (NHIS) and VA outpatient database (VA Corporate Data Warehouse).Participants 208,661 individuals from the NHIS interviewed between 1997 and 2009 at the age of 30 to 70 with mortality follow-up in the last quarter of 2011; 75,515 VA outpatients born between 1948 and 1968 who completed an alcohol survey in 2008 with mortality follow-up in June 2016.Exposures Quantity of alcohol use when not binging (1-2 drinks on typical day, 3-4 drinks on typical day), frequency of non-binge drinking (never, weekly or less, 2-3 times weekly, 4 or more times weekly), and frequency of binge drinking (never, less than weekly, 1-3 times weekly, 4 or more times weekly). Covariates included age, sex, race, and comorbidity.Main Outcomes and Measures All-cause mortality.Results After adjusting for binge drinking behavior, survival analysis showed an increased risk for all-cause mortality among people who typically drink 1-2 drinks four or more times weekly, relative to people who typically drink 1-2 drinks at a time weekly or less (NHIS dataset HR=1.15, 95% CI 1.06-1.26; VA dataset HR=1.31, 95% CI 1.15-1.49).Conclusions and Relevance Drinking four or more times weekly increased risk of all-cause mortality, even among those who drank only 1 or 2 drinks daily. This was seen in both a large epidemiological database and a large hospital-based database, suggesting that the results can be generalized.