Studies of health effects of alcohol consumption may underestimate the
risks of imbibing, particularly for younger people, according to a new study in
the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The research demonstrates that although cohort studies–the type of
observational investigations typically used to study health benefits and
risks–sometimes show benefits from moderate alcohol consumption, they tend to
enroll people age 50 and older. Studying people at this age range eliminates
all those who have died before age 50 because of alcohol consumption.
Simply put, “deceased persons cannot be enrolled in cohort studies,” write
the authors, led by Timothy Naimi, M.D., M.P.H., of the Boston Medical Center.
“Those who are established drinkers at age 50 are ‘survivors’ of their alcohol
consumption who [initially] might have been healthier or have had safer
drinking patterns” compared with others.
In fact, more than 40% of overall deaths from alcohol occur before age 50,
according to the study. This suggests that most current studies underestimate
alcohol-related risk compared with what would be observed across the full age
spectrum. Further, the study demonstrates that most study participants are not
representative of all persons who begin to drink alcohol.
To obtain data for the current research, Naimi and his colleagues used the
Alcohol-Related Disease Impact software application from the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. The data used were derived from government
statistics on cause of death and health benefits from 2006 to 2010 in the
United States.
Naimi and colleagues found age was a large factor in deaths prevented by
alcohol consumption. Some 35.8% of the total deaths caused by alcohol occurred
in people ages 20 to 49. However, of the deaths determined to have been
prevented by alcohol consumption, only 4.5% occurred in this younger age group.
Although those ages 65 and older saw a similar 35.0% of the mortality
caused by drinking, 80% of the deaths that were prevented by alcohol
consumption occurred in this group.
A somewhat similar pattern emerged when the researchers looked at years of
potential life lost as a result of drinking. Of the overall years of life lost,
58.4% occurred in those ages 20 to 49. But this younger group saw only 14.5% of
the years of life saved from drinking.
People 65 and older accounted for 15% of the overall years of life lost
from alcohol consumption. However, more than 50% of the years of life saved
occurred within this older group.
In general, their results show that younger people “are more likely to die
from alcohol consumption than they are to die from a lack of drinking,”
according to the authors, whereas older people are the ones most likely to see
the health benefits of moderate drinking often mentioned in the news.
“This study adds to the literature questioning protective effects for
alcohol on all-cause mortality,” the authors conclude. Nonetheless, they write
that “most who choose to drink can do so with relatively low risk.”
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