News: Alcohol consumption leads to higher mortality in patients with SDOH, study suggests

A new study published in JAMA Open Network suggests that alcohol consumption increases the risks of mortality and morbidity when present in adults with health-related or socio-economic risk factors.

The study observed 135,103 participants over the age of 60 from the United Kingdom from September 2023 to May 2024. In conclusion, the researchers found that “even low-risk drinking was associated with higher mortality among older adults with health-related or socioeconomic factors.”

Here are some other highlights from the study:

• Compared with occasional drinking, low-risk drinking was associated with higher cancer mortality
• Compared with occasional drinking and low-risk drinking, moderate-risk drinking was associated with higher all-cause and cancer mortality
• Compared with occasional drinking and the less forms of risk-drinking, higher-risk drinking was associated with higher all-cause and cancer mortality
• Low-risk drinkers with health-related risk factors had higher cancer mortality and moderate-risk drinkers had higher all-cause and cancer mortality

The authors further remarked that there was an “attenuation of mortality observed for wine preference and drinking only during meals”; however, this was a phenomenon that deserved more investigation, “as it may mostly reflect the effect of healthier lifestyles, slower alcohol absorption, or nonalcoholic components of beverages.”

Editor’s note: To read the JAMA Open Network study, click here.