Search resultsThe health and health behaviors of people who do not drink alcohol
Title
The health and health behaviors of people who do not drink alcohol
Publication type
Journal Article
Year of Publication
2001
Authors
Journal
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Volume
21
Issue
4
Pagination
298 - 305
Date published
2001
ISBN
07493797 (ISSN)
Keywords
Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, alcohol consumption, Alcohol Drinking, article, drinking behavior, education, Educational Status, Female, Health Behavior, health hazard, health maintenance organization, Health Maintenance Organizations, health service, health status, household, human, human experiment, Humans, income, ischemic heart disease, Linear Models, male, mental health, Middle Aged, normal human, primary prevention, Questionnaires, social behavior, Temperance, United States
Abstract
Background: Compared to abstention, moderate drinking has been linked to better health, and heavy and hazardous drinking to increased morbidity and mortality. Many studies have failed to account for heterogeneity in health and drinking history among nondrinkers, however. If former drinkers quit in response to ill health, this could increase the risk in the nondrinker category and underestimate the effects of alcohol if illnesses leading to abstention are alcohol-related. In addition, health behaviors may vary with drinking status, affecting health outcomes often attributed to drinking. Methods: Survey data were collected from a probability sample of a large health maintenance organization's membership. Regression analyses assess the relationship between drinking status (adjusting for covariates), mental and physical health and functioning, and health behaviors. Results: Former drinkers and lifelong abstainers had worse health and functioning than current drinkers and, comparatively, former drinkers had worse health than lifelong abstainers. Former drinkers did not differ from light-to-moderate drinkers in regard to health behaviors (except for smoking), although lifelong abstainers and heavier drinkers were less likely to use preventive care or try to improve their health behaviors. Conclusions: Consistent with hypotheses that former drinkers may stop drinking because of poor health, former drinkers were less healthy than current drinkers and had slightly worse health than lifelong abstainers, compared to light-to-moderate drinkers. Former drinkers did not appear to be at risk because of poorer health behaviors (except smoking), but lifelong abstainers and heavier drinkers might benefit from outreach designed to increase use of preventive care and improve health behaviors. Copyright