Alcohol and mortality in middle-aged men from eastern France.
To evaluate prospectively the effect on mortality of wine drinking in Eastern France, we conducted an analysis on 34,014 consecutive middle-aged men coming for a comprehensive health appraisal between 1978 and 1983. We evaluated education, physical activity, smoking, and drinking habits by a questionnaire. Electrocardiogram, blood pressure, serum total cholesterol, and gamma-glutamyltransferase level were routinely measured. Seventy-seven per cent of the subjects drank wine; there was little difference between social classes in this proportion. We evaluated mortality over 10-15 years of follow-up. We estimated the relative risk (RR) of death by Cox proportional hazard models using nondrinkers as the reference and adjusting for six covariables. For an intake of 22-32 and 33-54 gm of alcohol per day, the RR of all-cause death was 0.70 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.59-0.82] and 0.76 (95% CI = 0.66-0.87), respectively. The lower mortality resulted from fewer deaths from cardiovascular disease and cancer. Above 128 gm per day of alcohol consumption, the RR was 1.37 (95% CI = 1.16-1.61). A moderate intake of wine (2-5 glasses per day) was associated with a 24-31% reduction in all-cause mortality, a proportion that was similar for smokers, ex-smokers, and nonsmokers.
Renaud
S C
SC
Institut National pour la Santé et la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Unit 330, Bordeaux, France.
Guéguen
R
R
Schenker
J
J
d'Houtaud
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D014920:Wine / Q000009:adverse effects*