Aims

To support the free and open dissemination of research findings and information on alcoholism and alcohol-related problems. To encourage open access to peer-reviewed articles free for all to view.

For full versions of posted research articles readers are encouraged to email requests for "electronic reprints" (text file, PDF files, FAX copies) to the corresponding or lead author, who is highlighted in the posting.

___________________________________________

Friday, April 20, 2007

Patterns of Alcohol Drinking and All-Cause Mortality: Results from a Large-Scale Population-based Cohort Study in Japan
American Journal of Epidemiology 2007 165(9):1039-1046;


To evaluate the hypothesis that, in terms of all-cause death, drinking alcohol 1–4 days per week is less harmful than daily (5–7 days/week) drinking of the same quantity of alcohol, a prospective cohort study using a self-administered questionnaire was conducted in Japan between 1990 and 2003 of 88,746 subjects (41,702 men and 47,044 women) aged 40–69 years at baseline.

Among male regular drinkers consuming alcohol more than 1 day per week, light drinkers (<300> no increase in all-cause mortality irrespective of frequency of alcohol intake.

Heavy drinkers (≥300 g/week), however, showed an increased risk of all-cause mortality among those who consumed alcohol 5–7 days per week, while no obvious increase was observed among those who consumed alcohol less than 4 days per week.

These findings support the Japanese social belief that "liver holidays," abstaining from alcohol for more than 2 days per week, are important for heavy drinkers.

READ FULL ABSTRACT


REPRINT REQUEST E-MAIL: tmarugam@gan2.res.ncc.go.jp
____________________________________________________________
at