Long-Term Trends (1994-2011) and Predictors of Total Alcohol and Alcoholic Beverages Consumption: The EPIC Greece Cohort.

Nikolaos Skourlis,Paraskevi Massara,Antonia Trichopoulou,Eleni Peppa,Klea Katsouyanni,Ioannis Patsis

doi:10.3390/nu13093077

Nikolaos Skourlis, Paraskevi Massara + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13093077

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the longitudinal changes in alcohol consumption (total alcohol and types of alcoholic beverages) of the Greek EPIC cohort participants (28,572) during a 17-year period (1994–2011), with alcohol information being recorded repeatedly over time. Descriptive statistics were used to show crude trends in drinking behavior. Mixed-effects models were used to study the consumption of total alcohol, wine, beer and spirits/other alcoholic beverages in relation to birth cohort, socio-demographic, lifestyle and health factors. We observed a decreasing trend of alcohol intake as age increased, consistent for total alcohol consumption and the three types of beverages. Older birth cohorts had lower initial total alcohol consumption (8 vs. 10 g/day) and steeper decline in wine, spirits/other alcoholic beverages and total alcohol consumption compared to younger cohorts. Higher education and smoking at baseline had a positive association with longitudinal total alcohol consumption, up to +30% (vs. low education) and more than +25% (vs. non-smoking) respectively, whereas female gender, obesity, history of heart attack, diabetes, peptic ulcer and high blood pressure at baseline had a negative association of −85%, −25%, −16%, −37%, −22% and −24% respectively. Alcohol consumption changed over age with different trends among the studied subgroups and types of alcohol, suggesting targeted monitoring of alcohol consumption.

Highlights

Some alcohol consumption patterns have been shown to be protective against various cardiovascular events [1] while at the same time high alcohol intake is a risk factor for various non-communicable chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes [2]and several types of cancer [3,4]
An increase is observed in the frequency of alcohol abstainers as well as a reduction of the average consumption over time. These results agree with McEvoy et al [8] and Molander et al [7] who reported a decline in average alcohol consumption over time and
Spirits/other alcoholic beverages and total alcohol consumption tended to decrease with age while wine consumption tended to have a more linear decrease with older cohorts presenting steeper decreases over age

Summary

Introduction

Some alcohol consumption patterns have been shown to be protective against various cardiovascular events [1] while at the same time high alcohol intake is a risk factor for various non-communicable chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes [2]and several types of cancer [3,4]. Given the important impact of alcohol intake on public health, the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes the value of close monitoring of longitudinal drinking patterns and their determinants across countries. The 2019 WHO European Region report on alcohol consumption is alarming for Europe, where the per capita alcohol intake varies widely by country but is still the highest in the world [5]. In this setting, longitudinal data is required to monitor continually changes in drinking behavior in the European region and guide related policies. Culture [13], religion/religiosity [14] and ethnicity [15] are factors associated with alcohol consumption

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