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The association between alcohol consumption and mortality: the Swedish women’s lifestyle and health study

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Abstract

Although light to moderate alcohol intake may reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, the effect on total mortality requires further study, particularly among young and middle-aged women. We studied the association between alcohol consumption and mortality from all causes, from cancer, and from CVD in the Swedish Women’s Lifestyle and Health Study, a cohort of 47,921 female residents of Sweden aged 30–49 years at baseline in 1991/1992 and followed up to 2006. We estimated the relative risk (RR) of mortality associated with alcohol intake using Cox regression adjusted for age, smoking, BMI, saturated fat intake, physical activity, and education. During 713,295 person-years of follow-up, 1,119 deaths occurred, including 158 deaths from CVD, 673 deaths from cancer, and 288 deaths from other causes. Compared with non-drinking, light to moderate drinking (0.1–19.9 g of alcohol per day) showed a statistically significant inverse association with total mortality (RR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.71–0.98). Analyses of cause-specific mortality revealed an RR for CVD mortality of 0.69 (95% CI = 0.46–1.01) and an RR for cancer mortality of 0.92 (95% CI = 0.75–1.15). These results suggest that in younger women, a possibly beneficial effect of light to moderate drinking on future risk of mortality is limited to a prevention of CVD mortality but not cancer mortality.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Pouran Almstedt for excellent data management.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Regensburg University Medical Center, Franz-Josef-Strauss-Allee 11, 93053, Regensburg, Germany

    Gundula Behrens, Michael F. Leitzmann & Iris M. Heid

  2. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, P.O. Box 281, Nobels väg 12 A, 171 77, Stockholm, Sweden

    Sven Sandin, Marie Löf, Hans-Olov Adami & Elisabete Weiderpass

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Hans-Olov Adami

  4. Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo, Norway

    Elisabete Weiderpass

  5. Department of Community Medicine, Tromso, Norway

    Elisabete Weiderpass

  6. Program on Genetic Research, Folkhälsan Research Center, University of Helsinki, Biomedicum 1, Haartmansgatan 8, PB 63 (C321b), 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Elisabete Weiderpass

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  1. Gundula Behrens
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Correspondence to Gundula Behrens.

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Behrens, G., Leitzmann, M.F., Sandin, S. et al. The association between alcohol consumption and mortality: the Swedish women’s lifestyle and health study. Eur J Epidemiol 26, 81–90 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-011-9545-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-011-9545-x

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