High-risk drinking tied to higher all-cause, cancer, and cardiovascular mortality<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter<\/b><\/p>\n
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WEDNESDAY, Aug. 21, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Even low-risk drinking is associated with higher mortality among older adults, according to a study published online Aug. 12 in\u00a0JAMA Network Open<\/em>.<\/p>\n Rosario Ortol\u00c3\u00a1, M.D., Ph.D., from Universidad Aut\u00c3\u00b3noma de Madrid, and colleagues examined the association between alcohol consumption patterns with 12-year mortality. Analysis included data from 135,103 participants (\u00e2\u0089\u00a560 years) in the U.K. Biobank.<\/p>\n The researchers found that high-risk drinking was associated with higher all-cause (hazard ratio [HR], 1.33), cancer (HR, 1.39), and cardiovascular (HR, 1.21) mortality, compared with occasional drinking, while moderate-risk drinking was associated with higher all-cause (HR, 1.10) and cancer (HR, 1.15) mortality. Low-risk drinking was associated with higher cancer mortality (HR, 1.11). Among those with socioeconomic risk factors, low-risk and moderate-risk drinking patterns were associated with higher mortality from all causes (low risk: HR, 1.14; moderate risk: HR, 1.17) and cancer (low risk: HR, 1.25; moderate risk: HR, 1.36). There were small protective associations for a wine preference (>80 percent of alcohol from wine) and drinking with meals, especially from cancer, but only in drinkers with socioeconomic or health-related risk factors and was associated with attenuating the excess mortality associated with high-, moderate- and even low-risk drinking.<\/p>\n “This cohort study identified inequalities in the detrimental health outcomes associated with alcohol that should be addressed to reduce the high disease burden of alcohol use,” the authors write.<\/p>\n