Healthy Former Drinkers Have Higher Mortality Than Light Drinkers.

Abstract

It is known that former drinkers have higher mortality than lifelong abstainers. Stopping drinking because of some disease or alcoholism is the common explanation. As light alcohol intake may decrease mortality (Di Castelnuovo et al., 2006, Ronksley et al., 2011), some former drinkers may have higher mortality because they have stopped light drinking. To study this, I have reviewed studies on alcohol intake and all-cause mortality and compared healthy former with light drinkers. Only follow-up studies with adjustment for baseline disease or self-rated health and major risk factors were included. All studies in three earlier meta-analyses (Di Castelnuovo et al., 2006, Ronksley et al., 2011, Stockwell et al., 2016) were included. Searching PubMed on July 15, 2016, did not yield new articles. The key words and subject headings were [mortality OR death] AND [alcohol OR intake OR consumption OR ethanol] AND [cohort OR longitudinal OR prospective]. The inclusion criteria were distinction between former drinkers and other abstainers in data analysis, light drinkers available as a reference group (intake up to two drinks (24 g) per day or drinking day) and adjustment for diseases or self-rated health reported at baseline examination. …