Search resultsThe association between alcohol consumption and mortality: The Swedish women's lifestyle and health study
Title
The association between alcohol consumption and mortality: The Swedish women's lifestyle and health study
Publication type
Journal Article
Year of Publication
2011
Authors
Journal
European Journal of Epidemiology
Volume
26
Issue
2
Pagination
81 - 90
Date published
2011
ISBN
03932990 (ISSN)
Keywords
Adult, alcohol, alcohol consumption, Alcohol Drinking, article, cancer mortality, cardiovascular disease, Cardiovascular Diseases, cause of death, cohort analysis, Cohort Studies, Cohort study, controlled study, drinking behavior, Female, Follow-Up Studies, human, Humans, major clinical study, Middle Aged, mortality, Neoplasms, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk, risk assessment, risk factor, Risk Factors, self report, Sweden, women's health
Abstract
Although light to moderate alcohol intake may reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, the effect on total mortality requires further study, particularly among young and middle-aged women. We studied the association between alcohol consumption and mortality from all causes, from cancer, and from CVD in the Swedish Women's Lifestyle and Health Study, a cohort of 47,921 female residents of Sweden aged 30-49 years at baseline in 1991/1992 and followed up to 2006. We estimated the relative risk (RR) of mortality associated with alcohol intake using Cox regression adjusted for age, smoking, BMI, saturated fat intake, physical activity, and education. During 713,295 person-years of follow-up, 1,119 deaths occurred, including 158 deaths from CVD, 673 deaths from cancer, and 288 deaths from other causes. Compared with non-drinking, light to moderate drinking (0.1-19.9 g of alcohol per day) showed a statistically significant inverse association with total mortality (RR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.71-0.98). Analyses of cause-specific mortality revealed an RR for CVD mortality of 0.69 (95% CI = 0.46-1.01) and an RR for cancer mortality of 0.92 (95% CI = 0.75-1.15). These results suggest that in younger women, a possibly beneficial effect of light to moderate drinking on future risk of mortality is limited to a prevention of CVD mortality but not cancer mortality.