title: Drinking patterns in French adult men--a cluster analysis of alcoholic beverages and relationship with lifestyle.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Establishing patterns of alcohol consumption may be useful for investigating the relationship between alcohol and diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used a hierarchical agglomerative clustering method to describe the intake of eight types of alcoholic beverages and to determine drinking patterns in a cohort of 1797 men enrolled in a French 8-year intervention study involving nutritional doses of vitamins and minerals, the SU.VI.MAX study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cluster 1, referred to as 'abstainers', was defined a priori and included 329 men who drank less than 5 g of alcohol per day. Six drinking patterns were defined in alcohol drinkers, with increasing mean alcohol intake: cluster 2, 'low drinkers', included 670 subjects, who drank little of any type of alcoholic beverage; cluster 3, 'high quality wines', included 584 men with a high intake of champagne, high quality wines, and high-alcohol aperitifs; cluster 4, 'beer and cider', included 190 subjects with a high intake of beer and cider; cluster 5, 'digestives', included 54 men with a specifically high consumption of digestive beverages; cluster 6, 'local wines', included 238 subjects with a high intake of local wines and low-alcohol aperitifs; cluster 7, 'table wines', included 61 men with a high intake of table wines and high-alcohol aperitifs. These clusters were significantly associated with socioeconomic and lifestyle variables such as place of residence, occupation, mean caloric intake and distribution of energy intake throughout the day, body mass index, and smoking habits.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  They will be useful in future studies of the relationship between alcohol intake and medical conditions or risk factors.
authors.affiliation: ISTNA, CNAM, 5 rue Vertbois, 75003 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rouillier
authors.forename: Marie-Christine
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Boutron-Ruault
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bertrais
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Arnault
authors.forename: Jean-Jacques
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Daudin
authors.forename: Jean-Noël
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Bacro
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hercberg
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015930:Diet Records; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012907:Smoking; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors