Stop alcohol associated with improvements in quality of life

According to a recent study, the evolution of alcohol consumption can improve the quality of life of patients, especially their mental well-being.

Hong Kong investigators concluded that alcohol withdrawal was related to favorable changes in mental well-being that were still apparent, even after adjustment for factors such as BMI and HIV / AIDS. smoking.

"Global consumption of alcohol is expected to continue to increase if effective strategies are not used," said researcher Michael Ni, MD, of the School of Public Health and Key State Laboratory. of the brain and cognitive sciences. "Our results suggest that, according to the recommendations, moderate alcohol consumption could improve health-related quality of life." Stop drinking may be badociated with a more favorable change in mental well-being, close to the level of alcohol. Abstention in the course of life. "

The investigators obtained data representative of the FAMILY cohort population and the National Alcohol and Related Disease Epidemiological Survey (NESARC) in order to badess the badociations between changes in moderate drinking and smoking. alcohol and the quality of life of 2 distinct populations. All participants were 18 years of age or older and alcohol measurements were available at two different times over a four-year period.

Data on a total of 10,386 participants were extracted from the FAMILY cohort. The average age of this group was 49.3 years and the proportion of men was 44.2%. Most of the 5794 women included were non-drinkers (n = 2931) in Wave 1 and most of them (89.8%) were lifelong abstainers in Wave 2. Among the remaining women of this group, 9.2% started drinking and 1.0% were formerly persistent drinkers. . Of the drinkers (n = 714, 12.3%) in Wave 1, 62.2% stopped drinking during the follow-up period.

Investigators noted that, in the FAMILY cohort, men and women who are lifelong absentees have the highest level of mental well-being, as measured by the summary of the physical and mental component of the family. the health survey of 12 members, 54.5 men and 53.6% among women). Women who quit smoking had a greater improvement in their mental well-being compared to lifetime abstainers.

In the NESARC cohort, 31,079 participants were identified. The average age was 46.3 years and 40.6% of the cohort was a man. Investigators found that abstinent women had the highest level of mental well-being at first, with an average score of 52.0.

The researchers validated the badociations detected in the FAMILY cohort using the results of the NESARC group. Although results remained consistent among women who stopped smoking (β = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.08 to 1.58 in Model 1, β = 0.83, 95% CI, 0.07 to 1.58 in the model 2), the badociation between former male drinkers and the evolution of mental well-being has not been validated.

In their conclusion, the investigators wrote that they felt their findings confirmed the hypothesis that reducing alcohol consumption could improve the quality of life. In addition, improvements in mental well-being related to alcohol withdrawal were similar to smoking cessation.

This study titled "Change in Moderate Alcohol Use and Quality of Life: Evidence from 2 Population-Based Cohorts" is published in CMAJ.