Alcohol consumption and mortality in Japan: the Miyagi Cohort Study.
BACKGROUND
We examined the association between alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality in Japanese men and women.


METHODS
From June through August 1990, a total of 39,076 subjects (20,660 men and 18,416 women) in 14 municipalities of Miyagi Prefecture in rural northern Japan (40-64 years of age) completed a self-administered questionnaire that included information about alcohol consumption and various health habits. During 11 years of follow-up, we identified 1,879 deaths (1,335 men and 544 women). We used Cox proportional-hazards regression to estimate relative risk (RR) of all-cause mortality according to categories of alcohol consumption and to adjust for age, education, marital status, past histories of chronic diseases, body mass index, smoking, walking and dietary variables.


RESULTS
Among men, the risk for all-cause mortality was significantly higher in past drinkers than never-drinkers (multivariate RR, 1.86; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.50-2.29). There was a dose-response association between alcohol consumption and the risk of all-cause mortality among current drinking men: multivariate RRs in reference to never-drinkers (95% CI) were 1.10 (0.90-1.33), 1.17 (0.96-1.42), 1.16 (0.96-1.40), and 1.62 (1.32-1.99) in current drinkers who consumed less than 22.8 g, 22.8-45.5 g, 45.6-68.3 g, and 68.4 g or more alcohol per day, respectively (P for trend<0.001). Similar association was observed among women (P for trend=0.005).


CONCLUSIONS
The results indicated that alcohol consumption tended to be associated with linear increase in risk of all-cause mortality among Japanese men and women, and the association was remarkable for younger men.
Nakaya
Naoki
N
Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan.
Kurashima
Kayoko
K
Yamaguchi
Junko
J
Ohkubo
Takayoshi
T
Nishino
Yoshikazu
Y
Tsubono
Yoshitaka
Y
Shibuya
Daisuke
D
Fukudo
Shin
S
Fukao
Akira
A
Tsuji
Ichiro
I
Hisamichi
Shigeru
S
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000401:mortality*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors