Average volume of alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality in African Americans: the NHEFS cohort.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze the relationship between average volume of alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality in African Americans.


METHODS
Prospective cohort study--the NHANES Epidemiologic Follow-Up Study (NHEFS)--with baseline data collected 1971 through 1975 as part of the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I) and follow-up through 1992.


METHODS
The analytic data set consisted of 2054 African American men (n = 768) and women (n = 1,286), 25 to 75 years of age, who were followed for approximately 19 years.


METHODS
Alcohol was measured with a quantity-frequency measure at baseline.


RESULTS
All-cause mortality.


RESULTS
No J-shaped curve was found in the relationship between average volume of alcohol consumption and mortality for male or female African Americans. Instead, no beneficial effect appeared and mortality increased with increasing average consumption for more than one drink a day. The reason for not finding the J-shape in African Americans may be the result of the more detrimental drinking patterns in this ethnicity and consequently the lack of protective effects of alcohol on coronary heart disease. Taking into account sampling design did not substantially change the results from the models, which assumed a simple random sample.


CONCLUSIONS
If this result can be confirmed in other samples, alcohol policy, especially prevention, should better incorporate patterns of drinking into programs.
Sempos
Christopher T
CT
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University at Buffalo, New York 14214-3000, USA. sempos@buffalo.edu
Rehm
Jürgen
J
Wu
Tiejian
T
Crespo
Carlos J
CJ
Trevisan
Maurizio
M
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000401:mortality*; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models