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In Mexico City, a middle-aged adult who drinks, on average, the equivalent of about 500ml of spirits per week is 43% more likely to die before age 75 than a similar adult who drinks on a less than monthly basis, according to research published today in The Lancet Public Health.

Image of alcohol bottles on shelves in a shop,

Researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Oxford Population Health interviewed and collected blood from 150,000 men and women in Mexico City and tracked their public health records over 20 years to assess their risk of disease and death as part of the Mexico City Prospective Study.

The researchers found that, compared with occasional drinkers who drank less than monthly, people who reported to drink more than ~500ml of alcohol spirits per week when they joined the study had a 43% higher risk of death from any cause and nearly three times the risk of death from a subset of causes pre-specified as likely to be alcohol related (eg liver disease), after taking into account the effects of age, sex, education, physical activity, smoking, and diabetes.

Compared with occasional light drinking, occasional heavy episodic drinking or ‘binge’ drinking was associated with 20% higher risk of alcohol-related death, and regular heavy episodic drinking was associated with 89% higher risk alcohol-related death. Consumption of products with alcohol percentages higher than spirits, although rare, was associated with the greatest mortality risk.

Co-author Jesús Alegre-Díaz, Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Medicine at UNAM, said ‘Studies in Europe and North America have shown higher death rates amongst individuals who drink regularly, but direct assessments on the impact to health of alcohol consumption in the Mexican population had been limited. Our study shows the extent to which alcohol consumption is associated with mortality in Mexico City, and highlights how improving our understanding of the relevance of alcohol to health can improve population health.’

Read the full story on the Nuffield Department of Population Health (NDPH) website.