Alcohol abstention in early adulthood and premature mortality: Do early life factors, social support, and health explain this association?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Adult alcohol abstainers have a heightened risk of premature mortality compared to light-to-moderate drinkers. We examine three plausible explanations, other than lack of alcohol, for this observed difference: Abstainers 1) have early life disadvantages that undermine long-term health; 2) lack social support; 3) are less healthy.

Method

In the National Child Development Study, an ongoing national British cohort study of individuals born in 1958, we investigated whether early life disadvantages, lack of social support, and poor physical health reduce or eliminate the elevated risk of mortality through age 51 among those abstaining from alcohol at age 33. Using Cox proportional hazard models in a stepwise approach we examined whether the alcohol-mortality relationshi

SUBMITTER: Evans-Polce RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4970918 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature