Alcohol Consumption, Heavy Drinking, and Mortality: Rethinking the J-Shaped Curve

Background High average daily consumption of alcohol has been associated with elevated mortality risk, but more moderate consumption, relative to abstinence, has been associated with reduced mortality risk. However, average daily consumption can be complicated to assess, limiting its usefulness in b...

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Published in:Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research clinical and experimental research, 2014-02, Vol.38 (2), p.471-478
Main Authors: Plunk, Andrew D., Syed-Mohammed, Husham, Cavazos-Rehg, Patricia, Bierut, Laura J., Grucza, Richard A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Alcohol Abstinence - psychology
Alcohol Drinking - mortality
Alcohol-Related Mortality
Alcoholism - mortality
Binge Drinking
Drinking Pattern
Educational Status
Ethnicity
Female
Health Status
Humans
Income
Male
Middle Aged
Models, Statistical
Moderate Drinking
Poverty
Proportional Hazards Models
Sex Factors
Socioeconomic Factors
Young Adult
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Summary:Background High average daily consumption of alcohol has been associated with elevated mortality risk, but more moderate consumption, relative to abstinence, has been associated with reduced mortality risk. However, average daily consumption can be complicated to assess, limiting its usefulness in both research and clinical practice. There are also concerns that average consumption fails to capture the risk associated with certain drinking patterns, such as heavy episodic drinking. This study assessed mortality associated with drinking pattern, operationalized as the frequency of both heavy and nonheavy drinking occasions. Methods Data from the 1997 to 2001 administrations of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS; n = 111,511) were paired with the current release of the NHIS Linked Mortality Files, which provided mortality follow‐up data through the end of 2006. We estimated the impact of drinking pattern on all‐cause mortality, operationalized as the frequency of heavy (5+ drinks) and nonheavy (
ISSN:0145-6008
1530-0277
DOI:10.1111/acer.12250