Alcohol consumption and mortality

BMJ 1999;319:1267 ( 6 November )

Letters

Alcohol consumption and mortality

Underestimates of consumption are possible

Type of drink has been shown to matter

Authors' reply

Underestimates of consumption are possible

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Hart et al say that the mortality curve in relation to alcohol consumption may not be U shaped or J shaped once socioeconomicand confounding factors are taken into account.¹ We shouldlike to raise concerns about the estimates of weekly alcohol consumptionused, in particular by taking one bottle of wine to be equivalentto six units of alcohol. This value is only true for a 750 mlbottle of wine that is 8% alcohol by volume. Apart from some Germanwines, most wines are between 11% and 13.5% alcohol by volume.Many supermarket wines now state how many units of alcohol arecontained in each 125 ml glass.

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

Our brief survey in a large supermarket to assess their alcohol contents of a random selection of wines (table) shows thatthe actual number of units consumed in wine could be underestimatedby as much as 37.5% per bottle for . . . [Full text of this article]

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Alcohol consumption and mortality from all causes, coronary heart disease, and stroke: results from a prospective cohort study of Scottish men with 21 years of follow up: Carole L Hart, George Davey Smith, David J Hole, and Victor M Hawthorne
BMJ 1999 318: 1725-1729. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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