Abstract
PURPOSE: A U-shaped relation between alcohol use and mortality may be due to biological hormesis, differential response (i.e., effect modification) by health status or changes in alcohol use with ill-health and aging (i.e., reverse causality).We examined whether alcohol had the same association with mortality in healthy and unhealthy older people.
METHODS: We used Cox regression analysis to examine the association of alcohol with mortality by health status in a population-based cohort of 56,167 people (65+ years), enrolled during July 1998 to December 2000 in Hong Kong.
RESULTS: After a mean follow-up of 4.1 years, there were 3,819 deaths in 54,087 subjects. Adjusted for age, socioeconomic position and lifestyle, both occasional and moderate types of alcohol use were associated with lower mortality compared to never-drinkers, relative risk (RR) 0.72 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.63-0.83) and 0.73 (95% CI 0.59-0.90) in men and 0.77 (95% CI 0.64-0.94) and 0.54 (95% CI 0.29-1.01) in women. However, these associations were not maintained in those with good health status: RR 1.02 (95% CI 0.74-1.39) and 1.09 (95% CI 0.71-1.68) in men and 0.63 (95% CI 0.36-1.12) and 1.27 (95% CI 0.40-4.01) in women.
CONCLUSIONS: Moderate alcohol use may only be beneficial for older adults in poor health.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 396-403 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Annals of Epidemiology |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2009 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Aged
- Aged, 80 and over
- Alcohol Drinking/epidemiology
- Asian People/statistics & numerical data
- Cause of Death
- Demography
- Female
- Health Status
- Health Surveys
- Hong Kong/epidemiology
- Humans
- Male
- Prospective Studies