BMJ 1995;311:1167 (28 October)

Letters

Study confounded by lack of correction for social class

EDITOR,--Morten Gronbaek and colleagues' paper on the possible health benefits of drinking wine1 attracted wide attention in the media in Norway. It might be wise to obey the slogan "never check a good story." However, the reporting of associations between risk factors and health outcomes in the medical literature is plagued with the various interpretations of causation, and the media made no exception this time.

No one who knows the social habits of Scandinavians should overlook the possible confounding of wine drinking by social class and related lifestyles. It is a pity, then, that this well conducted study leaves some doubt about whether social class or social status was controlled for properly. Classification by social class is not done in standardised ways in the Scandinavian countries,2 yet mortality in most European countries shows a strong (and increasing) gradient with social class.2 3 The Danish paper presents education and income (loosely named . . . [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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