Findings from a recent large study have suggested that over-60s who regularly drink are risking early death, particularly from cancer or issues related to the heart and blood vessels.
The research, published in JAMA Network Open, builds upon numerous other recent studies concluding that any amount of alcohol consumption is linked to significant health risks, reports WebMD.
That’s a change from decades of public health messaging suggesting that moderate alcohol intake (one or two drinks per day) wasn’t dangerous. Recently, experts have uncovered flaws in how researchers came to those earlier conclusions.
In this latest study, researchers in Spain analysed health data for more than 135 000 people, all of whom were at least 60, lived in the United Kingdom, and provided their health information to the UK Biobank database. The average age of people at the start of the analysis period was 64.
The researchers compared 12 years of health outcomes for occasional drinkers to those who averaged drinking at least some alcohol on a daily basis. The greatest health risks were seen between occasional drinkers and those whom the researchers labelled “high risk.”
Occasional drinkers had less than about two drinks per week. The high-risk group included men who averaged nearly three drinks per day or more, and women who averaged about a drink and a half per day or more. The analysis showed that compared to occasional drinking, high-risk drinking was linked to:
A 33% increased risk of early death
A 39% increased risk of dying from cancer
A 21% increased risk of dying from problems with the heart and blood vessels
More moderate drinking habits were also linked to an increased risk of early death and dying from cancer, and even just averaging about one drink or less daily was associated with an 11% higher risk of dying from cancer.
Low and moderate drinkers were most at-risk if they also had health problems or experienced socioeconomic factors like living in less affluent neighbourhoods.
The findings also suggested the potential that mostly drinking wine, or drinking mostly with meals, may be lower-risk, but the researchers called for further study on those topics since “it may mostly reflect the effect of healthier lifestyles, slower alcohol absorption, or non-alcoholic components of beverages”.
Study details
Alcohol Consumption Patterns and Mortality Among Older Adults With Health-Related or Socioeconomic Risk Factors
Rosario Ortolá, Mercedes Sotos-Prieto, Esther García-Esquinas, et al.
Published in JAMA Network Open on 12 August 2023
Abstract
Importance
Alcohol consumption is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality that may be more important in older adults with socioeconomic or health-related risk factors.
Objective
To examine the association of alcohol consumption patterns with 12-year mortality and its modification by health-related or socioeconomic risk factors.
Design, Setting, and Participants
This prospective cohort study used data from the UK Biobank, a population-based cohort. Participants were current drinkers aged 60 years or older. Data were analyzed from September 2023 to May 2024.
Exposure
According to their mean alcohol intake in grams per day, participants’ drinking patterns were classified as occasional: ≤2.86 g/d), low risk (men: >2.86-20.00 g/d; women: >2.86-10.00 g/d), moderate risk (men: >20.00-40.00 g/d; women: >10.00-20.00 g/d) and high risk (men: >40.00 g/d; women: >20.00 g/d).
Main Outcomes and Measures
Health-related risk factors were assessed with the frailty index, and socioeconomic risk factors were assessed with the Townsend deprivation index. All-cause and cause-specific mortality were obtained from death certificates held by the national registries. Analyses excluded deaths in the first 2 years of follow-up and adjusted for potential confounders, including drinking patterns and preferences.
Results
A total of 135 103 participants (median [IQR] age, 64.0 [62.0-67.0] years; 67 693 [50.1%] women) were included. In the total analytical sample, compared with occasional drinking, high-risk drinking was associated with higher all-cause (hazard ratio [HR], 1.33; 95% CI, 1.24-1.42), cancer (HR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.26-1.53), and cardiovascular (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.04-1.41) mortality; moderate-risk drinking was associated with higher all-cause (HR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.03-1.18) and cancer (HR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.05-1.27) mortality, and low-risk drinking was associated with higher cancer mortality (HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.01-1.22). While no associations were found for low- or moderate-risk drinking patterns vs occasional drinking among individuals without socioeconomic or health-related risk factors, low-risk drinking was associated with higher cancer mortality (HR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.01-1.30) and moderate-risk drinking with higher all-cause (HR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.01-1.19) and cancer (HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.05-1.35) mortality among those with health-related risk factors; low-risk and moderate-risk drinking patterns were associated with higher mortality from all causes (low risk: HR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.01-1.28; moderate risk: HR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.03-1.32) and cancer (low risk: HR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.04-1.50; moderate risk: HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.13-1.63) among those with socioeconomic risk factors. Wine preference (>80% of alcohol from wine) and drinking with meals showed small protective associations with mortality, especially from cancer, but only in drinkers with socioeconomic or health-related risk factors and was associated with attenuating the excess mortality associated with high-, moderate- and even low-risk drinking.
Conclusions and Relevance
In this cohort study of older drinkers from the UK, even low-risk drinking was associated with higher mortality among older adults with health-related or socioeconomic risk factors. The attenuation of mortality observed for wine preference and drinking only during meals requires further investigation, as it may mostly reflect the effect of healthier lifestyles, slower alcohol absorption, or nonalcoholic components of beverages.
WebMD article – Regularly Drinking Alcohol After Age 60 Linked to Early Death (Open access)
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