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Childhood mental ability and adult alcohol intake and alcohol problems: the 1970 British cohort study

Childhood mental ability and adult alcohol intake and alcohol problems: the 1970 British cohort study
Childhood mental ability and adult alcohol intake and alcohol problems: the 1970 British cohort study
OBJECTIVES: We examined the potential relation of mental ability test scores at age 10 years with alcohol problems and alcohol intake at age 30 years. METHODS: We used data from a prospective observational study involving 8170 members of a birth cohort from Great Britain born in 1970. Data included mental ability scores at age 10 years and responses to inquiries about alcohol intake and problems at age 30 years. RESULTS: After adjustment for potential mediating and confounding factors, cohort members with higher childhood mental ability scores had an increased prevalence of problem drinking in adulthood. This association was stronger among women (odds ratio [OR](1 SD increase in ability) = 1.38; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.16, 1.64) than men (OR(1 SD increase in ability) = 1.17; CI = 1.04, 1.28; P for interaction = .004). Childhood mental ability was also related to a higher average intake of alcohol and to drinking more frequently. Again, these gradients were stronger among women than among men. CONCLUSIONS: In this large-scale cohort study, higher childhood mental ability was related to alcohol problems and higher alcohol intake in adult life. These unexpected results warrant examination in other studies
educational status, methods, questionnaires, sex distribution, childhood, health, life, follow-up studies, humans, logistic models, association, social class, child, great britain, intelligence, confounding factors (epidemiology), parents, prevalence, cohort studies, prospective studies, women, adult, age, epidemiology, alcoholism, public health, alcohol drinking, male, birth, analysis of variance, birth cohort, severity of illness index, cohort, female, odds ratio, risk factors, education, psychology, intelligence tests, etiology, alcohol, occupations
2237-2243
Batty, G. David
605ce199-493d-4238-b9c8-a2c076672e83
Deary, Ian J.
027158ae-fbfb-40ea-98b1-32d2690499ac
Schoon, Ingrid
7d34edc7-0fbc-4ba1-8c0c-30746d693d11
Emslie, Carol
a39975d1-d527-4751-bd63-8f964279e722
Hunt, Kate
cb965940-2091-40c4-980b-2f6e2352a047
Gale, Catharine R.
5bb2abb3-7b53-42d6-8aa7-817e193140c8
Batty, G. David
605ce199-493d-4238-b9c8-a2c076672e83
Deary, Ian J.
027158ae-fbfb-40ea-98b1-32d2690499ac
Schoon, Ingrid
7d34edc7-0fbc-4ba1-8c0c-30746d693d11
Emslie, Carol
a39975d1-d527-4751-bd63-8f964279e722
Hunt, Kate
cb965940-2091-40c4-980b-2f6e2352a047
Gale, Catharine R.
5bb2abb3-7b53-42d6-8aa7-817e193140c8

Batty, G. David, Deary, Ian J., Schoon, Ingrid, Emslie, Carol, Hunt, Kate and Gale, Catharine R. (2008) Childhood mental ability and adult alcohol intake and alcohol problems: the 1970 British cohort study. American Journal of Public Health, 98 (12), 2237-2243. (doi:10.2105/AJPH.2007.109488).

Record type: Article

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: We examined the potential relation of mental ability test scores at age 10 years with alcohol problems and alcohol intake at age 30 years. METHODS: We used data from a prospective observational study involving 8170 members of a birth cohort from Great Britain born in 1970. Data included mental ability scores at age 10 years and responses to inquiries about alcohol intake and problems at age 30 years. RESULTS: After adjustment for potential mediating and confounding factors, cohort members with higher childhood mental ability scores had an increased prevalence of problem drinking in adulthood. This association was stronger among women (odds ratio [OR](1 SD increase in ability) = 1.38; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.16, 1.64) than men (OR(1 SD increase in ability) = 1.17; CI = 1.04, 1.28; P for interaction = .004). Childhood mental ability was also related to a higher average intake of alcohol and to drinking more frequently. Again, these gradients were stronger among women than among men. CONCLUSIONS: In this large-scale cohort study, higher childhood mental ability was related to alcohol problems and higher alcohol intake in adult life. These unexpected results warrant examination in other studies

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More information

Published date: December 2008
Keywords: educational status, methods, questionnaires, sex distribution, childhood, health, life, follow-up studies, humans, logistic models, association, social class, child, great britain, intelligence, confounding factors (epidemiology), parents, prevalence, cohort studies, prospective studies, women, adult, age, epidemiology, alcoholism, public health, alcohol drinking, male, birth, analysis of variance, birth cohort, severity of illness index, cohort, female, odds ratio, risk factors, education, psychology, intelligence tests, etiology, alcohol, occupations

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 70286
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/70286
PURE UUID: 3f1fb682-a11e-47d5-a136-98713ef9c685
ORCID for Catharine R. Gale: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3361-8638

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Date deposited: 28 Jan 2010
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:38

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Contributors

Author: G. David Batty
Author: Ian J. Deary
Author: Ingrid Schoon
Author: Carol Emslie
Author: Kate Hunt

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