title: Premature mortality among prominent American authors noted for alcohol abuse.
abstract: An array of 27 American authors noted in the literature for their excessive drinking was compared for their longevity to a control group of 54 writers. The latter were selected for having similar sex distribution and distribution of dates of birth, as well as for their peer recognition among American writers. The median (and range) for the alcohol-abusing writers was 65 (33-77) years, whereas the control group survived to a median of 76 years (range 32-90). This difference was highly significant (p less than 0.001). Thus, data from American authors support those epidemiologic studies reporting alcohol abuse to be a cause of premature mortality, rather than others that have failed to demonstrate such a relationship. The social cost of an alcohol-related decrement in lifespan is emphasized by these data from a highly talented selection of American writers.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000266:history / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008093:Literature, Modern / Q000266:history*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014481:United States