Researchers tracking more than 340 000 people to investigate how different alcohol consumption patterns related to long-term mortality said CVD, cancer, and other causes were all significantly higher with high total alcohol consumption, but that low or moderate wine drinking was associated with lower mortality for some outcomes, reports News Medical.
The study, led by Chinese scientists, but also including Dutch, Canadian and US researchers, was published in Nutrition Journal.
Inconsistent
While heavy drinking is among the leading causes of mortality, evidence on the impact of low or moderate intake remains inconsistent.
The researchers used data from the UK Biobank cohort to examine links between total and beverage-specific alcohol intake and all-cause and cause-specific mortality, grouping participants according to their consumption of pure alcohol, using never or occasional intake (no more than 20 g per week) as the reference group.
For context, 20 g is roughly equivalent to a 500 mL beer containing 5% alcohol. Low intake was defined as more than 20 g per week but no more than 20 g per day for men or 10 g per day for women. Moderate intake ranged from above 20 to 40 g per day for men and above 10 to 20 g per day for women, while high intake exceeded 40 g and 20 g per day, respectively.
The team used Cox proportional hazards models to examine mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, and other causes: the models were adjusted for age, race, sex, education, socioeconomic deprivation, smoking, physical activity, body mass index (BMI), diet quality, clinical characteristics, family medical history, and drinking patterns.
For each beverage, mortality was compared with that among people consuming little or none of that beverage, with adjustment for consumption of other alcoholic drinks.
The study included 340 924 (mean age 56), with women accounting for just more than half the cohort.
Individuals with high alcohol consumption from beer/cider were more likely to be male, reported greater physical activity, and had lower educational attainment and diet quality than those with never or occasional intake.
During a mean 13.4-year follow-up, 22 381 deaths occurred. High total alcohol intake was linked to higher mortality from all causes, cancer, CVD, and other causes compared with never or occasional intake. Moderate total alcohol consumption was associated with elevated cancer mortality only. Low total alcohol intake was associated with lower other-cause mortality. High intake from beer/cider was linked to increased all-cause and cause-specific mortality.
Even low beer/cider consumption was associated with elevated cancer mortality. Alcohol intake from spirits at low or combined moderate-to-high levels was linked to greater all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Lower all-cause and cause-specific mortality were noted with low wine intake; high wine intake was associated with increased cancer mortality.
Moderate or low red wine intake was associated with lower all-cause, CVD, and other-cause mortality, but high red wine intake was linked to higher all-cause and cancer mortality. High white wine consumption was linked to higher all-cause, cancer, and other-cause mortality, while high fortified wine consumption was associated with higher all-cause and other-cause mortality.
Across 20 site-specific cancer mortality outcomes, total or beverage-specific alcohol intake was associated with higher mortality in 15 after correction for multiple comparisons, including head and neck, respiratory, gastrointestinal, liver/gallbladder, haematological, breast, and genital cancers.
There was a linear relationship between total alcohol intake and mortality from all causes, CVD, and cancer, primarily driven by intake from spirits and beer/cider.
The researchers said that taken together, mortality from all causes, CVD, cancer, and other causes was significantly higher with high total alcohol consumption. Even moderate intake was associated with higher cancer mortality. Low or moderate alcohol intake from wine was associated with lower mortality for some outcomes.
They said their findings suggest that low-to-moderate spirits and beer/cider intake may be associated with adverse mortality outcomes, particularly cancer mortality, but the observational design cannot establish causation. The lower mortality among wine drinkers does not establish a protective effect of wine.
Alcohol intake was self-reported and primarily assessed at baseline, and residual confounding and limited generalisability remain possible.
Study details:
Total and beverage-specific alcohol use at mid-life and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: a prospective cohort study
Ziyue Li, Bohao Tan, Clémence Desjardins et al.
Published in Nutrition Journal on 22 July 2026
Abstract
Background
While detrimental health impacts of excessive alcohol use are well-established, potential effects of low-to-moderate drinking remain controversial. We examined the associations between total and beverage-specific alcohol intake and mortality, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer (e.g., 20 site-specific cancers), and other mortality.
Methods
We included 340,924 participants from UK Biobank (2006–2022). Alcohol use was categorised as: never or occasional alcohol consumption (≤ 20 g/week), low consumption (> 20 g/week to ≤ 20 g/d for men, > 20 g/week to ≤ 10 g/d for women), moderate consumption (> 20 to ≤ 40 g/d for men, > 10 to ≤ 20 g/d for women), and high consumption (> 40 g/d for men and > 20 g/d for women). We used Cox proportional hazard models to examine the associations of alcohol intake and mortality.
Results
During a mean follow-up of 13.4 years, we documented 22,381 deaths. Compared with never or occasional alcohol intake, high total alcohol intake was associated with higher mortality from all-causes (HR and 95%CI: 1.24 (1.17, 1.31)), CVD (1.14 (1.01, 1.28)), cancer (1.36 (1.26, 1.47)), and other causes (1.12 (1.02, 1.22)), whereas moderate alcohol use was associated with higher cancer mortality (1.11 (1.03, 1.20)) only. Alcohol consumption from spirits and beer/cider, even at low to moderate levels, was associated with higher mortality from all-causes, CVD, cancer, and other diseases (HRs ranging from 1.07 to 1.83). Yet, low and moderate alcohol intake from wine was associated with lower all-cause, CVD, cancer, or other mortality. Importantly, moderate to high intake of total alcohol and alcohol from beer/cider and spirits, and high wine use were particularly associated with higher mortality from multiple site-specific cancers, including mortality from head/neck, respiratory system, gastrointestinal, liver/gallbladder, haematological, female breast, and female/male genital cancers.
Conclusions
The results suggested that low to moderate alcohol intake from spirits and beer/cider was associated with higher all-cause, CVD, cancer, and other mortality, while low to moderate wine consumption was associated with lower all-cause, CVD, cancer, and other mortality. However, high alcohol use, regardless of beverage-type, mortality from various site-specific cancers was elevated.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Moderate alcohol use associated with lower CVD risk and all-cause mortality – ASPREE
Moderate alcohol use can be good for the heart if rich, fatal if poor
Moderate drinking harms rather than protects heart health
Beer, spirits detrimental to visceral fat and heart, but not wine – US study