ALCOHOL-ABUSE AND MORTALITY - A 40-YEAR PROSPECTIVE-STUDY OF NORWEGIAN CONSCRIPTS

The availability of a 40-yr prospective study of more than 40,000 Norw egian men born in 1932-33 constituted the point of departure for asses sing excess mortality in alcohol abusers as well as proportions of pre mature deaths in men attributable to alcohol abuse. The conscripts wer e medically examined at the military screening, alcohol abuse was cate gorized for those registered as admitted to alcohol treatment units ov er a 35-yr period from 1951 to 1987, and these data were further linke d to the national death register in 1991. A total of 4468 men died bef ore the age of 60 (10.8% of the sample). Alcohol abusers were found to have an overall excess mortality of 3.3, increasing with age. The cum ulative risk of death before the age of 60 yr was estimated to 0.405 f or the alcohol abusers, and at least 6.7% of all deaths before the age of 60 could be attributed to alcohol abuse. Presence of chronic disea ses at conscription did not confound the estimates of excess mortality in alcohol abusers, neither was any significant interaction between c hronic diseases at conscription and later alcohol abuse found with res pect to mortality. The most prevalent causes of death in the total sam ple were, in descending order, cardiovascular diseases, malignant tumo rs, and accidents. The relative risks for alcohol abusers of death fro m accidents, cardiovascular diseases, and malignant tumors were estima ted as 3.2, 2.5, and 1.8, respectively. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Sc ience Ltd