Effects of Alcohol Consumption on Health

Abstract

HE purpose of this paper is to determine what concluS . cw sions may be drawn from available data bearing on health problems associated with alcohol use. Evidence respecting such problems derives mainly from studies of: (a) the drinking histories of persons suffering from a tc*4A9 particular disease or trauma; (b) the prevalence of physical health problems in samples of heavy drinkers; (c) the mortality experience of such drinkers; (d) the drinking histories of persons who have died from a particular cause; and (e) regional and temporal variation in cause-specific death rates in relation to variation in indices of the prevalence of heavy drinking. There have also been many experimental studies but, insofar as human subjects have been involved, these have necessarily been short-term and confined to acute effects presumed to be relevant to the disease conditions of interest.