Alcohol-related Causes Research Articles

Drinking and mortality. The Framingham Study.

Drinking and subsequent mortality were examined in a cohort of 5,209 men and women from Framingham, Massachusetts. Alcohol histories were obtained at the second biennial examination (1950-1954) from 2,106 men and 2,641 women. Of this group, 646 men and 521 women died in the next 22 years. Unlike what is reported from most other prospective studies, men who drank had lower mortality than men who did not, the lowest mortality being for light drinkers. Even men drinking 60 ounces of alcohol per month or more had no greater mortality than nondrinkers. Drinking by women was unrelated to subsequent mortality. For most alcohol-related causes, there were too few deaths to analyze. Liver cirrhosis, however, accounted for 24 deaths. Although these were related to alcohol use, more than half of the persons dying from this cause reported drinking less than 60 ounces of alcohol per month at baseline. There was, however, a very strong association of heavy alcohol consumption with stomach cancer, but not with any other cancer.

Controlled drinking by alcoholics? New findings and a reevaluation of a major affirmative study.

Controlled drinking has recently become a controversial alternative to abstinence as an appropriate treatment goal for alcoholics. In this study we reexamine the evidence underlying a widely cited report by Sobell and Sobell of successful controlled drinking by a substantial proportion of gamma (physically dependent) alcoholic subjects in a behavior therapy experiment. A review of the evidence, including official records and new interviews, reveals that most subjects trained to do controlled drinking failed from the outset to drink safely. The majority were rehospitalized for alcoholism treatment within a year after their discharge from the research project. A 10-year follow-up (extended through 1981) of the original 20 experimental subjects shows that only one, who apparently had not experienced physical withdrawal symptoms, maintained a pattern of controlled drinking; eight continued to drink excessively--regularly or intermittently--despite repeated damaging consequences; six abandoned their efforts to engage in controlled drinking and became abstinent; four died from alcohol-related causes; and one, certified about a year after discharge from the research project as gravely disabled because of drinking, was missing.

Alcohol-related deaths in Wisconsin: the impact of alcohol on mortality.

Analysis of the impact of alcohol as an underlying and non-underlying cause of death in Wisconsin showed a marked increase between 1963 and 1977 in the frequency of deaths reported with mention of alcohol. The rate of deaths for which alcohol was a non-underlying cause rose more sharply during this period (2.4 per 100,000 to 9.3) than that of alcohol-related causes (4.6/100,000 to 9.0). Nearly 90 per cent of alcohol-related deaths at ages 15-24 reported alcohol as a non-underlying cause, compared to 40.7 per cent at ages 45-54 and 57 per cent at ages 75+. This proportion was higher (50.8 per cent) among males than among females (32.8 per cent). Deaths related to alcohol are attributed to a number of underlying causes in addition to alcohol. In 1975-77, nearly half of the reported alcohol-related deaths were attributed to other causes, including accidents (14.8 per cent), heart disease (14.3 per cent), respiratory diseases (4.9 per cent), suicide (3.7 per cent), and cancer (31 per cent). These percentages may reflect substantial underreporting. Comparison of motor vehicle driver death certificates with blood alcohol test reports for these drivers shows 90 per cent underreporting of alcohol on death certificates. This fact, along with other information on underreporting, shows that the approximately 650 deaths now being reported with mention of alcohol annually in Wisconsin, represent only a portion of such deaths.

Alcohol consumption and premature death in middle-aged men.

All the men living in Malmö born in 1926-9 were invited for a screening examination which included an assessment of alcohol consumption and measurement of gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) activity. They were followed for up to four years (median 2) and their mortality assessed. Sixty-two deaths occurred, 41 (0.9%) among the 4571 men who attended the screening investigation and 21 (1.3%) among the 1609 who did not respond to the invitation. Evidence of alcohol abuse or an alcohol-related cause of death was present in 25 (61%) of the deaths among the attenders and 13 (62%) of those among the non-responders. GGT values at the screening investigation were significantly increased in 19 (46%) of those who died, but established risk factors, such as cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations and blood pressure, had little predictive value. Measurement of GGT provided an objective index of alcohol consumption, though the full clinical importance of a raised value needs further assessment. The finding that heavy alcohol consumption was the single most important factor associated with premature death in these middle-aged men has important implications for prevention.

A standardized estimator of the prevalence of alcoholism based on mortality data.

Death rates from alcohol-related causes correlated with over-all mortality and reflected general health conditions and demographic characteristics as well as the prevalence of alcoholism.

Cultural Contingencies of Alcoholism: Variations between and within Nineteenth-Century Urban Ethnic Groups in Alcohol-Related Death Rates

From the 1890 U.S. Census vital statistics compilations are drawn comparisons of adult rates of death from alcohol-related causes (alcoholism, liver diseases) in urban white ethnic groups (defined by birthplace of mother), with specification of sex, sex and marital status, neighborhood status, and sex and neighborhood status. In each of three cities, the Irish have the highest rate, followed by the English, Germans, and those with U.S.-born mothers, while the Italians and especially Russian Jews have extraordinarily low rates. Furthermore, within each of the three largest maternal-origin groups (German, Irish, U.S.), death rates from alcoholism by sex and marital status conform to Durkheim's findings for suicide, with wives contributing a higher proportion of the deaths of married persons than spinsters contribute of the deaths of unmarried persons. The extraordinarily low Irish sex ratio, and the uniform effects of marital status in three ethnic groups, cast doubt on explanations of an Irish propensity to alcoholism which focus on the peculiarities of Irish bachelorhood.