Wine Information Council

The scarce research on the effects of moderate alcohol consumption on mental health among older adults suggests a protective effect against depression. We prospectively examined the association between patterns of moderate alcohol consumption, depression and psychological distress, using information from 5,299 community-dwelling older adults from the ELSA and Seniors-ENRICA cohorts. A Mediterranean drinking pattern (MDP) was defined as moderate alcohol intake (<40 g/day for men; <24 g/day for women) with a preference for wine and drinking only with meals. Depression was ascertained with the 10-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-10), a self-report of clinically-diagnosed depression, or being on anti-depressant medication (Seniors-ENRICA); and with the 8-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) (ELSA). Psychological distress was assessed with the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12). Compared to never drinkers, moderate drinkers showed comparable scores on the ENRICA-GDS-10 (PRR (95%CI): 1.03 (0.84-1.26)), the ENRICA-GHQ-12 (0.88 (0.73-1.06)), the ELSA-CES-D (0.92 (0.79-1.06)) and the ELSA-GHQ-12 (0.75 (0.55-1.01). The MDP was not associated with the GDS-10 or GHQ-12 scores, or with clinically-diagnosed depression; however drinkers with a preference for wine showed an increased number of psychological distress symptoms (1.31 (1.03-1.66)). In conclusion, we found no consistent protective association between moderate alcohol consumption and depression in older adults

BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic studies have found that moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a decreased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) incidence. Nevertheless, whether the drinking pattern is associated with CHD incidence still remains inconclusive.

METHODS: We included 8,469 Chinese men aged 45-81 years, who were free of CHD, stroke, or cancer at baseline from Dongfeng-Tongji cohort. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information on alcohol consumption and other covariates. Cox proportional hazard regression model was applied to estimate the multivariable-adjusted hazard rations (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs).

RESULTS: During an average of 4.36 years of follow-up, we identified 959 incident CHD events. Compared with non-drinkers, the multivariable-adjusted HR (95% CI) of CHD incidence was 0.84 (0.71-0.98) in current drinkers. With respect to drinking pattern, men who consumed 20.01-40 grams ethanol once a time had a 24% lower risk of incident CHD (HR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.62, 0.94) compared with non-drinkers. The adjusted HRs (95% CI) of CHD incidence were 0.80 (0.65, 0.99), 1.02 (0.84, 1.22), and 0.75 (0.59-0.96) in subjects who consumed 0.01-10, 10.01-30, and > 30 grams ethanol per day, respectively. Participants who consumed 20.01-40 grams ethanol per time with less than 5 times per week had the lowest risk of CHD incidence (HR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.52, 0.96). No significant associations were observed between type or frequency of alcohol consumption and CHD incidence.

CONCLUSIONS: Drinking was associated with a lower risk of CHD incidence in middle-aged and older Chinese men and moderate quantity of ethanol amounts once a time with lower frequency could been considered as a healthy drinking pattern, which might modify the relationship between alcohol consumption and incident CHD.

Moderate alcohol consumption has been linked to an approximate 30-50% increased risk in breast cancer. Case-control and cohort studies have consistently observed this modest increase. We highlight recent evidence from molecular epidemiologic studies and studies of intermediate markers like mammographic density that provide additional evidence that this association is real and not solely explained by factors/correlates of the exposure and outcome present in non-randomized studies. We also review evidence from studies of higher risk women including BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers. Given the incidence of heart disease is higher than breast cancer and modest alcohol consumption is associated with reduced risk of heart disease, we examine the latest evidence to evaluate if alcohol reduction should be targeted to women at high risk for breast cancer. We also review the most recent evidence on the effect of alcohol use on tumor recurrence and survival for those diagnosed with breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Epidemiologic studies have reported conflicting results regarding maternal alcohol consumption before and during pregnancy, and the risk of congenital heart defects (CHDs). However, a systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between maternal alcohol consumption and CHDs in offspring has not been conducted.

DESIGN: We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE for articles catalogued between their inception and February 16, 2015; we identified relevant published studies that assessed the association between maternal alcohol consumption and CHD risk. Two authors independently assessed the eligibility of the retrieved articles and extracted data from them. Study-specific relative risk estimates were pooled by random-effects or fixed-effects models.

RESULTS: From the 1527 references, a total of 19 case-control studies and four cohort studies were enrolled in this meta-analysis. The summary of 23 studies related to CHDs indicated an overall pooled relative risk of 1.13 (95% confidence interval: 0.96, 1.29) among mothers drinking before or during pregnancy. Statistically significant heterogeneity was detected (Q = 196.61, P < .001, I2 = 88.8%) with no publication bias (Egger's test: P = .157). We conducted stratified and meta-regression analyses to identify the origin of the heterogeneity among studies.

CONCLUSION: In summary, this meta-analysis provided no positive association between maternal alcohol consumption and risk of CHDs.