Alcohol consumption trajectories over the life course and all-cause and disease-specific mortality: the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: Published studies rarely assess associations between trajectories of drinking and mortality. Methods: We aimed to assess associations between long-term sex-specific drinking trajectories and all-cause and disease-specific mortality for 39 588 participants (23 527 women; 16 061 men) enrolled in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study in 1990–94 aged 40–69 years. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for all-cause, cardiovascular disease- and cancer-specific mortality in relation to group-based alcohol intake trajectories. Results: There were 7664 deaths (1117 cardiovascular; 2251 cancer) in women over 595 456 person-years, and 71..