TY - JOUR PY - 1999// TI - The U-shaped curve: various health measures and alcohol drinking patterns JO - Journal of studies on alcohol A1 - San José, B. A1 - van de Mheen, H. A1 - van Oers, J. A. A1 - Mackenbach, J. P. A1 - Garretsen, Henk F. L. SP - 725 EP - 731 VL - 60 IS - 6 N2 - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the well-known U-shaped relationship between average alcohol intake and mortality also holds for other health measures and for aspects of drinking other than weekly average alcohol intake, such as frequency of heavy-drinking episodes. METHOD: This study was carried out within the framework of a general population survey conducted in Eindhoven, The Netherlands (N = 18,973). Apart from mortality, the following health measures were considered: self-assessed health (based on perceived general health and the Nottingham Health Profile questionnaire), a list of chronic conditions and a list of health complaints. Respondents were categorized as abstainers, light (1-14 units/week), moderate (15-28 units/week) and excessive drinkers (> or =29 units/week). Information on the frequency with which heavy-drinking episodes occurred was also available. RESULTS: Light or moderate drinkers had not only lower mortality but other health burdens were lower than for either abstainers or heavier drinkers. Frequent heavy-drinking episodes were observed to be directly related to increased mortality rates, although not significantly. A trend was observed for drinkers reporting seldom heavy-drinking episodes (once or twice in the previous 6 months) to report less health burdens and to have lower mortality rates than those reporting no heavy drinking episodes. CONCLUSIONS: A U-shaped pattern was observed for mortality as well as for several other health measures. Frequent heavy-drinking episodes were related to an increased likelihood of mortality (not significant but suggesting a J-shaped pattern) and were not related to other health measures.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0096-882X UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -