title: Usual alcohol consumption and suicide mortality among the Korean elderly in rural communities: Kangwha Cohort Study.
abstract: The evidence from prospective studies on whether greater usual alcohol consumption is associated with a higher risk of death by suicide in the general population is inconclusive.
  
  
  
  6163 participants (2635 men; 3528 women) in a 1985 survey among rural residents in Korea aged 55 years and above were followed until 2008. A Cox model was used to calculate HRs of suicide death after adjustment for demographic, socioeconomic and health-related confounders.
  
  
  
  37 men and 24 women died by suicide. Elderly persons who consumed alcohol daily, 70 g alcohol (5 drinks) or more per drinking day, or 210 g alcohol (15 drinks) or more per week had higher suicide mortality (p<0.05), compared with non-drinkers. An increase of one drinking day per week (HR=1.17, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.31), 70 g (5 drinks) additional alcohol intake per drinking day (HR=1.38, 95% CI 1.13 to 1.70), and 140 g (10 drinks) additional alcohol intake per week was associated with a 17%, 38% and 12% higher risk of suicide death, respectively. Women had a higher relative risk of suicide death associated with alcohol consumption, compared with men.
  
  
  
  A greater frequency and amount of usual alcohol consumption was linearly associated with higher suicide death. Given the same amount of alcohol consumption, women might have a higher relative risk of suicide than men. Our findings support 'the lower the better' for alcohol intake, no protective effect of moderate alcohol consumption, and a sex-specific guideline (lower alcohol threshold for women) as actions to prevent suicide death.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Catholic Kwandong University College of Medicine, Gangneung, Republic of Korea Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Catholic Kwandong University College of Medicine, Gangneung, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sang-Wook
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6656-6205
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Yonsei University Graduate School, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Myoungjee
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Promotion, Graduate School of Public Health, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Heejin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kimm
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science, Eulji University College of Health Science, Sungnam, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jae-Woong
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Sull
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Sangmyung University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Eunsook
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Sangmyung University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kwang Ok
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Heechoul
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohrr
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: ALCOHOL; Cohort studies; MORTALITY; SUICIDE