The U-shaped curve: various health measures and alcohol drinking patterns.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether the well-known U-shaped relationship between average alcohol intake and mortality also holds for other health measures and for aspects of drinking other than weekly average alcohol intake, such as frequency of heavy-drinking episodes.


METHODS
This study was carried out within the framework of a general population survey conducted in Eindhoven, The Netherlands (N = 18,973). Apart from mortality, the following health measures were considered: self-assessed health (based on perceived general health and the Nottingham Health Profile questionnaire), a list of chronic conditions and a list of health complaints. Respondents were categorized as abstainers, light (1-14 units/week), moderate (15-28 units/week) and excessive drinkers (> or =29 units/week). Information on the frequency with which heavy-drinking episodes occurred was also available.


RESULTS
Light or moderate drinkers had not only lower mortality but other health burdens were lower than for either abstainers or heavier drinkers. Frequent heavy-drinking episodes were observed to be directly related to increased mortality rates, although not significantly. A trend was observed for drinkers reporting seldom heavy-drinking episodes (once or twice in the previous 6 months) to report less health burdens and to have lower mortality rates than those reporting no heavy drinking episodes.


CONCLUSIONS
A U-shaped pattern was observed for mortality as well as for several other health measures. Frequent heavy-drinking episodes were related to an increased likelihood of mortality (not significant but suggesting a J-shaped pattern) and were not related to other health measures.
San José
B
B
Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
van de Mheen
H
H
van Oers
J A
JA
Mackenbach
J P
JP
Garretsen
H F
HF
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology; D019540:Area Under Curve; D002908:Chronic Disease; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013695:Temperance / Q000523:psychology