Dose–Response Relationships between Levels of Alcohol Use and Risks of Mortality or Disease, for All People, by Age, Sex, and Specific Risk Factors
Alcohol use has been causally linked to more than 200 disease and injury conditions, as defined by three-digit ICD-10 codes. The understanding of how alcohol use is related to these conditions is essential to public health and policy research. Accordingly, this study presents a narrative review of d...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2021-07-01
|
| Series: | Nutrients |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/8/2652 |
| _version_ | 1797522552543772672 |
|---|---|
| author | Jürgen Rehm Pol Rovira Laura Llamosas-Falcón Kevin D. Shield |
| author_facet | Jürgen Rehm Pol Rovira Laura Llamosas-Falcón Kevin D. Shield |
| author_sort | Jürgen Rehm |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Alcohol use has been causally linked to more than 200 disease and injury conditions, as defined by three-digit ICD-10 codes. The understanding of how alcohol use is related to these conditions is essential to public health and policy research. Accordingly, this study presents a narrative review of different dose–response relationships for alcohol use. Relative-risk (RR) functions were obtained from various comparative risk assessments. Two main dimensions of alcohol consumption are used to assess disease and injury risk: (1) volume of consumption, and (2) patterns of drinking, operationalized via frequency of heavy drinking occasions. Lifetime abstention was used as the reference group. Most dose–response relationships between alcohol and outcomes are monotonic, but for diabetes type 2 and ischemic diseases, there are indications of a curvilinear relationship, where light to moderate drinking is associated with lower risk compared with not drinking (i.e., RR < 1). In general, women experience a greater increase in RR per gram of alcohol consumed than men. The RR per gram of alcohol consumed was lower for people of older ages. RRs indicated that alcohol use may interact synergistically with other risk factors, in particular with socioeconomic status and other behavioural risk factors, such as smoking, obesity, or physical inactivity. The literature on the impact of genetic constitution on dose–response curves is underdeveloped, but certain genetic variants are linked to an increased RR per gram of alcohol consumed for some diseases. When developing alcohol policy measures, including low-risk drinking guidelines, dose–response relationships must be taken into consideration. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T08:31:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-41a7f88852264b8790b0ac57cf81784d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-6643 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T08:31:03Z |
| publishDate | 2021-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nutrients |
| spelling | doaj.art-41a7f88852264b8790b0ac57cf81784d2023-11-22T09:03:58ZengMDPI AGNutrients2072-66432021-07-01138265210.3390/nu13082652Dose–Response Relationships between Levels of Alcohol Use and Risks of Mortality or Disease, for All People, by Age, Sex, and Specific Risk FactorsJürgen Rehm0Pol Rovira1Laura Llamosas-Falcón2Kevin D. Shield3Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, 33 Ursula Franklin Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2S1, CanadaProgram on Substance Abuse, Public Health Agency of Catalonia, 08005 Barcelona, SpainCentre for Addiction and Mental Health, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, 33 Ursula Franklin Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2S1, CanadaCentre for Addiction and Mental Health, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, 33 Ursula Franklin Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2S1, CanadaAlcohol use has been causally linked to more than 200 disease and injury conditions, as defined by three-digit ICD-10 codes. The understanding of how alcohol use is related to these conditions is essential to public health and policy research. Accordingly, this study presents a narrative review of different dose–response relationships for alcohol use. Relative-risk (RR) functions were obtained from various comparative risk assessments. Two main dimensions of alcohol consumption are used to assess disease and injury risk: (1) volume of consumption, and (2) patterns of drinking, operationalized via frequency of heavy drinking occasions. Lifetime abstention was used as the reference group. Most dose–response relationships between alcohol and outcomes are monotonic, but for diabetes type 2 and ischemic diseases, there are indications of a curvilinear relationship, where light to moderate drinking is associated with lower risk compared with not drinking (i.e., RR < 1). In general, women experience a greater increase in RR per gram of alcohol consumed than men. The RR per gram of alcohol consumed was lower for people of older ages. RRs indicated that alcohol use may interact synergistically with other risk factors, in particular with socioeconomic status and other behavioural risk factors, such as smoking, obesity, or physical inactivity. The literature on the impact of genetic constitution on dose–response curves is underdeveloped, but certain genetic variants are linked to an increased RR per gram of alcohol consumed for some diseases. When developing alcohol policy measures, including low-risk drinking guidelines, dose–response relationships must be taken into consideration.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/8/2652alcoholpatterns of drinkingdiseasemortalitydose responsemonotonous |
| spellingShingle | Jürgen Rehm Pol Rovira Laura Llamosas-Falcón Kevin D. Shield Dose–Response Relationships between Levels of Alcohol Use and Risks of Mortality or Disease, for All People, by Age, Sex, and Specific Risk Factors Nutrients alcohol patterns of drinking disease mortality dose response monotonous |
| title | Dose–Response Relationships between Levels of Alcohol Use and Risks of Mortality or Disease, for All People, by Age, Sex, and Specific Risk Factors |
| title_full | Dose–Response Relationships between Levels of Alcohol Use and Risks of Mortality or Disease, for All People, by Age, Sex, and Specific Risk Factors |
| title_fullStr | Dose–Response Relationships between Levels of Alcohol Use and Risks of Mortality or Disease, for All People, by Age, Sex, and Specific Risk Factors |
| title_full_unstemmed | Dose–Response Relationships between Levels of Alcohol Use and Risks of Mortality or Disease, for All People, by Age, Sex, and Specific Risk Factors |
| title_short | Dose–Response Relationships between Levels of Alcohol Use and Risks of Mortality or Disease, for All People, by Age, Sex, and Specific Risk Factors |
| title_sort | dose response relationships between levels of alcohol use and risks of mortality or disease for all people by age sex and specific risk factors |
| topic | alcohol patterns of drinking disease mortality dose response monotonous |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/8/2652 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jurgenrehm doseresponserelationshipsbetweenlevelsofalcoholuseandrisksofmortalityordiseaseforallpeoplebyagesexandspecificriskfactors AT polrovira doseresponserelationshipsbetweenlevelsofalcoholuseandrisksofmortalityordiseaseforallpeoplebyagesexandspecificriskfactors AT laurallamosasfalcon doseresponserelationshipsbetweenlevelsofalcoholuseandrisksofmortalityordiseaseforallpeoplebyagesexandspecificriskfactors AT kevindshield doseresponserelationshipsbetweenlevelsofalcoholuseandrisksofmortalityordiseaseforallpeoplebyagesexandspecificriskfactors |