ALCOHOL-CONSUMPTION AND COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE IN A RANDOM SAMPLE OF AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS WHO SERVED IN THE SECOND-WORLD-WAR

Objective: To examine the association between the average daily alcoho l intake of older men in 1982 and cognitive performance and brain atro phy nine years later, Subjects: Random sample of 209 Australian men li ving in the community who were veterans of the second world war. Their mean age in 1982 was 64.3 years, Main outcome measures: 18 standard n europsychological tests measuring a range of intellectual functions. C ortical, sylvian, and vermian atrophy on computed tomography. Results: Compared with Australian men of the same age in previous studies thes e men had sustained a high rate of alcohol consumption into old age, H owever, there was no significant correlation, linear or non-linear, be tween alcohol consumption in 1982 and results in any of die neuropsych ological tests in 1991; neither was alcohol consumption associated wit h brain atrophy on computed tomography. Conclusion: No evidence was fo und that apparently persistent lifelong consumption of alcohol was rel ated to the cognitive functioning of these men in old age.