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What's New - Moderate Drinking

Light to moderate drinking associated with better health, Kaiser Permanente study finds

Women May Benefit More Than Men from Light to Moderate Drinking

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - A new study of relationships between drinking and health shows that men and women who drink at a light to moderate level have better general health and physical functioning than people who do not drink, drink less, or drink more. The study also suggests that women gain more healthy benefits from light to moderate drinking than men. These results appear in the May 18 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.  

The study, conducted at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon, is based on a survey of the drinking habits and health of 3,069 men and 2,600 women members of Kaiser Permanente Northwest. The survey asked respondents to assess their general health, physical functioning, and mental health. It also asked them questions about their drinking habits over the past year - how often, how much on each occasion, how many drinks per month, and drinking patterns (abstainers, very infrequent light drinking, infrequent light drinking, regular light to moderate drinking, heavier episodic drinking, and regular heavier drinking). Light to moderate drinking was defined as consuming one or two drinks per occasion two or three times a week.

"Many studies of drinking and health focus on the average amount of alcohol consumed," say Carla Green, PhD, MPH, and colleagues at the Center for Health Research and Oregon Health & Science University. "This approach doesn't account for important differences in drinking patterns among people who consume alcohol. Our study found that light to moderate drinking is associated with better health and physical functioning even after accounting for age; ethnicity; marital status; smoking; and total body water, which is different for men and women and affects their responses to alcohol."

The study found that better general health and physical functioning were associated with greater alcohol consumption until people reached any of the following four levels: two to three drinks per week, one to two drinks per occasion, 15 to 29 drinks per month, and a regular light-to-moderate drinking pattern. After these points, health scores tended to be worse for both men and women.

The study also found that women who did not drink were significantly more likely to report worse physical functioning than men who did not drink. Women non- drinkers also reported worse functioning than men and women who drank either lightly or moderately. "This suggests that women may be more likely than men to avoid or stop drinking because of health concerns," Green and colleagues say.

The study was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research, founded in 1964, is a non-profit research institute whose mission is advancing knowledge to improve health. Kaiser Permanente Northwest, founded in 1945, is a prepaid group practice health care organization serving the health needs of more than 445,000 people in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

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Released: May 17, 2004