Alcohol consumption, heavy drinking, and mortality: rethinking the j-shaped curve.

ABSTRACT:

Background

High average daily consumption of alcohol has been associated with elevated mortality risk, but more moderate consumption, relative to abstinence, has been associated with reduced mortality risk. However, average daily consumption can be complicated to assess, limiting its usefulness in both research and clinical practice. There are also concerns that average consumption fails to capture the risk associated with certain drinking patterns, such as heavy episodic drinking. This study assessed mortality associated with drinking pattern, operationalized as the frequency of both heavy and nonheavy drinking occasions.

Methods

Data from the 1997 to 2001 administrations of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS; n = 111,511) were paired with the current release of the

SUBMITTER: Plunk AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3872245 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature