title: Moderate alcohol intake and risk of functional decline: the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the prospective relationship between alcohol consumption and incident mobility limitation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Health Aging and Body Composition study, conducted in Memphis, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three thousand sixty-one adults aged 70 to 79 without mobility disability at baseline.
  
  
  METHODS
  Incidence of mobility limitation, defined as self-report at two consecutive semiannual interviews of any difficulty walking one-quarter of a mile or climbing stairs, and incidence of mobility disability, defined as severe difficulty or inability to perform these tasks at two consecutive reports. Alcohol intake, lifestyle-related variables, diseases, and health status indicators were assessed at baseline.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During a follow-up time of 6.5 years, participants consuming moderate levels of alcohol had the lowest incidence of mobility limitation (total: 6.4 per 100 person-years (person-years); men: 6.4 per 100 person-years; women: 7.3 per 100 person-years) and mobility disability (total: 2.7 per 100 person-years; men: 2.5 per 100 person-years; women: 2.9 per 100 person-years). Adjusting for demographic characteristics, moderate alcohol intake was associated with lower risk of mobility limitation (hazard ratio (HR)=0.70, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.55-0.89) and mobility disability (HR=0.66, 95% CI=0.45-0.95) than never or occasional consumption. Additional adjustment for lifestyle-related variables substantially reduced the strength of the associations (HR=0.85, 95% CI=0.66-1.08 and HR=0.81, 95% CI=0.56-1.18, respectively). Adjustment for diseases and health status indicators did not affect the strength of the associations, suggesting that lifestyle is most important in confounding this relationship.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Lifestyle-related characteristics mainly accounted for the association between moderate alcohol intake and lower risk of functional decline over time. These findings do not support a direct causal effect of alcohol intake on physical function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Internal Medicine, Gerontology and Geriatric, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy. mrlcnz@unife.it
authors.forename: Cinzia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Maraldi
authors.forename: Tamara B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: Anne B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Newman
authors.forename: Stephen B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Kritchevsky
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pahor
authors.forename: Annemarie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koster
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Satterfield
authors.forename: Hilsa N
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Ayonayon
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fellin
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Volpato
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051346:Mobility Limitation; D012307:Risk Factors