Heavy alcohol consumption tied to increased risk of dementia: JAMA

Further study details are summarised below:

• The data was used from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database.
• The category of consuming alcohol was none, mild, moderate and heavy, with the drinking of 0 g per day, <15 g per day), 15-29.9 g per day and ≥30 g per day.
• The individuals were categorised as non-drinkers, quitters, reducers, sustainers, and increasers.
• The cases recorded of all-cause dementia, Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia are 100 282, 79 982 cases, and 11 085 cases, respectively.
• Sustained mild and moderate drinking had aHR of 0.79 and 0.83 than sustained nondrinking and tied to decreased all-cause dementia risk.
• Sustained heavy drinking with aHR of 1.08 increased the risk of all-cause dementia.
• Reducing alcohol consumption (heavy to moderate) and initiating mild alcohol consumption with a respective adjusted hazard ratio of 0.92 and 0.93 decreased the risk of all-cause dementia than the sustained level of drinking.
• Increasers and quitters had a higher risk than sustainers for all-cause dementia.

To conclude, the threshold of alcohol consumption for dementia risk reduction is low.

Further reading:

Changes in Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Dementia in a Nationwide Cohort in South Korea. JAMA Netw Open. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.54771