Low-to-moderate alcohol consumption and smoking cessation rates: retrospective analysis of 4576 elderly ever-smokers.
BACKGROUND
Smoking and alcohol consumption are two major risk factors for manifold morbidity and mortality outcomes and are highly correlated with each other. No conclusion has been reached concerning whether cigarette smokers drinking alcohol have more difficulties with smoking cessation. We aimed to elucidate the association of concurrent alcohol consumption with the probability of smoking cessation in non-clinical populations.


METHODS
Retrospective analysis in 4576 ever-smoking participants of the baseline survey of ESTHER, a population-based study in Germany, aged 50-74 at enrollment in general practitioner offices. Life-course histories of alcohol consumption were obtained from questionnaire items covering exposure intensities at ages 20, 30, 40, 50 and at the time of enrollment. Extended Cox regression modelling allowing for the time-varying nature of alcohol consumption was employed to model the time from smoking initiation to smoking cessation.


RESULTS
Using alcohol abstainers as the reference group and controlling for potential confounders, relative cessation rates (95% CI) increased to 1.17 (1.02, 1.34), 1.36 (1.20, 1.55), 1.45 (1.27, 1.66) and 1.32 (1.13, 1.53) with concurrent consumption of 1-39, 40-99, 100-199 and 200+g alcohol/week. This pattern persisted in extensive sensitivity analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of these analyses of time-varying concurrent alcohol consumption and smoking suggest that drinking low-to-moderate amounts of alcohol as common in the general population might actually facilitate cessation in non-clinical settings.
Breitling
Lutz Philipp
LP
Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center, Bergheimer Str 20, D-69115 Heidelberg, Germany. lutz.breitling@gmail.com
Müller
Heiko
H
Raum
Elke
E
Rothenbacher
Dietrich
D
Brenner
Hermann
H
D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome