Study: Light drinking still harms health of older adults

A new study has dismissed the longstanding belief that light or moderate alcohol consumption is good for the heart.

Published in JAMA Network Open, the research reveals that older adults with health issues who drink at low-risk levels are more likely to die of cancer when compared with people who drink only occasionally.

The risk escalates for moderate drinkers, who face a greater likelihood of dying from cancer and other causes while high-risk drinkers are particularly vulnerable to cancer, cardiovascular disease, and overall mortality.

The study included about 135,000 people aged 60 and up who enrolled in the 2006-2010 cohort of the UK Biobank — a large-scale biomedical database.

Each person’s score was assigned based on health risks and neighbourhood socioeconomic factors. The researchers then followed their health outcomes for a median of 12.4 years.

The expert discovered that, compared with occasional drinking, high-risk drinking was associated with a 33% greater risk of dying from any cause as well as a higher risk of dying from cancer or cardiovascular disease.

Moderate-risk drinking was associated with a 10% greater risk of death from any cause compared with occasional drinking, and a 15% greater risk of death from cancer. Even low-risk drinking was associated with an 11% greater risk of death from cancer compared with occasional drinking.

These findings underscore the importance of public health initiatives to address alcohol-related health disparities.

Rosario Ortolá, the study’s lead author, emphasised the detrimental effects of alcohol on cancer mortality.

“The detrimental effects on cancer deaths are observed from the first drop,” she said.

The findings come on the heels of a June report from the World Health Organization (WHO), which stated that alcohol was responsible for 2.6 million deaths globally in 2019, with the highest death rates occurring in low-income countries.

“The death rates due to alcohol consumption per litre of alcohol consumed are highest in low-income countries and lowest in high-income countries,” the report reads.