title: Effects of alcohol consumption on cognition and regional brain volumes among older adults.
abstract: This study utilized data from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort to examine the relationship between midlife and late-life alcohol consumption, cognitive functioning, and regional brain volumes among older adults without dementia or a history of abusing alcohol. The results from multiple linear regression models indicate that late life, but not midlife, alcohol consumption status is associated with episodic memory and hippocampal volume. Compared to late life abstainers, moderate consumers had larger hippocampal volume, and light consumers had higher episodic memory. The differences in episodic memory according to late life alcohol consumption status were no longer significant when hippocampal volume was included in the regression model. The findings from this study provide new evidence that hippocampal volume may contribute to the observed differences in episodic memory among older adults and late life alcohol consumption status.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Medical Branch, Sealy Center on Aging, Galveston, KY brdowner@utmb.edu.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Downer
authors.affiliation: University of Kentucky, Department of Behavioral Science, Lexington, KY.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland, SPHL-Behavioral & Community Health, College Park, MD.
authors.forename: Faika
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zanjani
authors.affiliation: University of Kentucky, Department of Biostatistics, Lexington, KY.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fardo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D001515:Beer; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000187:drug effects; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D008875:Middle Aged; D014920:Wine
keywords: aging; alcohol consumption; brain volume; cognition; episodic memory; hippocampus