BMJ 1995;311:1166 (28 October)

Letters

Inappropriate groups were used to calculate relative risk

EDITOR,--The effect of consumption of alcohol on mortality is an issue with a high profile, and questions about it are often asked in general practice. In their study Morten Gronbaek and colleagues compared the relative risks for wine drinkers by using those who never drank wine as the reference group1; this is very different from using teetotallers as the reference group and may lead to misunderstanding--certainly, the presentation in the media implied a comparison of wine drinkers with those who never drank at all.

We are concerned that very heavy drinkers were excluded from the analysis on the basis of too few deaths in some groups, although in total there were 275 deaths, which is considerable. Inclusion of very heavy drinkers might have had an appreciable effect on the trend in mortality among wine drinkers, as very heavy beer drinkers probably do not drink wine. Inclusion of this group . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Mortality associated with moderate intakes of wine, beer, or spirits
Morten Gronbaek, Allan Deis, Thorkild I A Sorensen, Ulrik Becker, Peter Schnohr, and Gorm Jensen
BMJ 1995 310: 1165-1169. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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