Alcohol consumption and cognitive performance in a random sample of Australian soldiers who served in the Second World War.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the association between the average daily alcohol intake of older men in 1982 and cognitive performance and brain atrophy nine years later.


METHODS
Random sample of 209 Australian men living in the community who were veterans of the second world war. Their mean age in 1982 was 64.3 years.


METHODS
18 standard neuropsychological tests measuring a range of intellectual functions. Cortical, sylvian, and vermian atrophy on computed tomography.


RESULTS
Compared with Australian men of the same age in previous studies these men had sustained a high rate of alcohol consumption into old age. However, there was no significant correlation, linear or non-linear, between alcohol consumption in 1982 and results in any of the neuropsychological tests in 1991; neither was alcohol consumption associated with brain atrophy on computed tomography.


CONCLUSIONS
No evidence was found that apparently persistent lifelong consumption of alcohol was related to the cognitive functioning of these men in old age.
Dent
O F
OF
Department of Sociology, Australian National University Canberra, Australia.
Sulway
M R
MR
Broe
G A
GA
Creasey
H
H
Kos
S C
SC
Jorm
A F
AF
Tennant
C
C
Fairley
M J
MJ
D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000523:psychology*; D001284:Atrophy; D001315:Australia; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014728:Veterans; D014857:Warfare