Abstract
Aims:Research suggests that intelligence is positively related to alcohol consumption. However, some studies of people born around 1950, particularly from Sweden, have reported that higher intelligence is associated with lower consumption and fewer alcohol-related problems. We investigated the relationships between intelligence, alcohol consumption, and adverse consequences of drinking in young men from Norway (a neighboring Scandinavian country) born in the late 1970s.Methods:This analysis was based on the population-based Young in Norway Longitudinal Study. Our sample included young men who had been followed from their mid-teens until their late 20s (n = 1126). Measures included self-reported alcohol consumption/intoxication, alcohol use disorders (AUDIT), and a scale measuring adverse consequences of drinking. Controls included family background, parental bonding, and parents’ and peers’ drinking. Intelligence test scores—scaled in 9 “stanines” (population mean of 5 and standard deviation of 2)—were taken from conscription assessment.Results:Men with higher intelligence scores reported average drinking frequency and slightly fewer adverse consequences in their early 20s. In their late 20s, they reported more frequent drinking than men with lower intelligence scores (0.30 more occasions per week, per stanine, age adjusted; 95% CI: 0.12 to 0. 49). Intelligence was not associated with intoxication frequency at any age and did not moderate the relationships between drinking frequency and adverse consequences.Conclusions: Our results suggest that the relationship between intelligence and drinking frequency is age dependent. Discrepancies with earlier findings from Sweden may be driven by changes in drinking patterns.
Highlights
Intelligence predicts morbidity and mortality, even after controlling for socioeconomic variables [1,2]
We investigate the association between intelligence and drinking patterns among young Norwegian men born in the 1970s.This is a relevant group due to their relatively high levels of alcohol-related problems, and because drinking patterns and lifestyles often consolidate in early adulthood [26]
This association was reduced by a third after control for family background characteristics measured in adolescence (Model 2, Panel 2)
Summary
Intelligence predicts morbidity and mortality, even after controlling for socioeconomic variables [1,2]. One possible explanation for this positive association is intelligence-related selection into educations and occupations where frequent drinking is more common.Whereas both genetics and other family background characteristics may confound the relationship between intelligence and alcohol consumption, a US twin study reported cognitive ability to predict alcohol consumption independently of family background and genetics [14]. Considering why some studies have found negative associations between intelligence and adverse consequences of drinking, we speculate that the presumably protective role of intelligence may function differently with regard to alcohol than to other aspects of health behavior. Drinkers with higher intelligence may more often avoid adverse consequences of their drinking Such a pattern of positive correlations with consumption but negative correlations with alcohol-related harm has previously been observed for socioeconomic status, and the notion that high SES groups consume more alcohol but experience less alcohol-related problems has been denoted the “Alcohol Harm Paradox” [25]
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