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Internationally recognized guidelines for 'sensible' alcohol consumption: is exceeding them actually detrimental to health and social circumstances? Evidence from a population-based cohort study

Internationally recognized guidelines for 'sensible' alcohol consumption: is exceeding them actually detrimental to health and social circumstances? Evidence from a population-based cohort study
Internationally recognized guidelines for 'sensible' alcohol consumption: is exceeding them actually detrimental to health and social circumstances? Evidence from a population-based cohort study
Background: the health and social impact of drinking in excess of internationally recognized weekly (>21 units in men; >14 units in women) and daily (>4 units in men; >3 units in women) recommendations for ‘sensible’ alcohol intake are largely unknown.
Methods: a prospective cohort study of 1551 men and women aged around 55 years in 1988 when typical alcohol consumption was recalled using a 7-day grid. An average of 3.4 years later (1990/92), study participants were re-surveyed (n = 1259; 84.7% of the target population) when they responded to nurse-administered enquiries regarding minor psychiatric morbidity, self-perceived health, hypertension, accidents, overweight/obesity and financial difficulties. Study members were followed up for mortality experience over 18 years.
Results: in fully adjusted analyses, surpassing guidelines for sensible alcohol intake was associated with an increased risk of hypertension [daily guidelines only: P-value(trend): 0.012], financial problems [weekly guidelines: P-value(difference): 0.046] and, to a lesser degree, accidents [weekly guidelines: P-value(difference): 0.065]. There was no association between either indicator of alcohol intake and mortality risk.
Conclusions: in the present study, there was some evidence for a detrimental effect on health and social circumstances of exceeding current internationally recognized weekly and daily guidelines for alcohol intake
alcohol, alcohol consumption, epidemiology
1741-3842
360-365
Batty, G. David
605ce199-493d-4238-b9c8-a2c076672e83
Lewars, Heather
dafbca82-13bb-4ad5-a9e7-66421a497a64
Emslie, Carol
a39975d1-d527-4751-bd63-8f964279e722
Gale, Catharine R.
5bb2abb3-7b53-42d6-8aa7-817e193140c8
Hunt, Kate
cb965940-2091-40c4-980b-2f6e2352a047
Batty, G. David
605ce199-493d-4238-b9c8-a2c076672e83
Lewars, Heather
dafbca82-13bb-4ad5-a9e7-66421a497a64
Emslie, Carol
a39975d1-d527-4751-bd63-8f964279e722
Gale, Catharine R.
5bb2abb3-7b53-42d6-8aa7-817e193140c8
Hunt, Kate
cb965940-2091-40c4-980b-2f6e2352a047

Batty, G. David, Lewars, Heather, Emslie, Carol, Gale, Catharine R. and Hunt, Kate (2009) Internationally recognized guidelines for 'sensible' alcohol consumption: is exceeding them actually detrimental to health and social circumstances? Evidence from a population-based cohort study. Journal of Public Health, 31 (3), 360-365. (doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdp063).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background: the health and social impact of drinking in excess of internationally recognized weekly (>21 units in men; >14 units in women) and daily (>4 units in men; >3 units in women) recommendations for ‘sensible’ alcohol intake are largely unknown.
Methods: a prospective cohort study of 1551 men and women aged around 55 years in 1988 when typical alcohol consumption was recalled using a 7-day grid. An average of 3.4 years later (1990/92), study participants were re-surveyed (n = 1259; 84.7% of the target population) when they responded to nurse-administered enquiries regarding minor psychiatric morbidity, self-perceived health, hypertension, accidents, overweight/obesity and financial difficulties. Study members were followed up for mortality experience over 18 years.
Results: in fully adjusted analyses, surpassing guidelines for sensible alcohol intake was associated with an increased risk of hypertension [daily guidelines only: P-value(trend): 0.012], financial problems [weekly guidelines: P-value(difference): 0.046] and, to a lesser degree, accidents [weekly guidelines: P-value(difference): 0.065]. There was no association between either indicator of alcohol intake and mortality risk.
Conclusions: in the present study, there was some evidence for a detrimental effect on health and social circumstances of exceeding current internationally recognized weekly and daily guidelines for alcohol intake

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Published date: September 2009
Keywords: alcohol, alcohol consumption, epidemiology

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 71746
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/71746
ISSN: 1741-3842
PURE UUID: 8bd5901b-2d10-42e8-a78f-1220681503c9
ORCID for Catharine R. Gale: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3361-8638

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Date deposited: 04 Jan 2010
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:38

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Contributors

Author: G. David Batty
Author: Heather Lewars
Author: Carol Emslie
Author: Kate Hunt

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