Nurses who drank alcohol regularly but moderately in their midlife were healthier than women who did not drink at all or drank less moderately, a longitudinal survey indicates.
The survey draws on the findings of the first Harvard University US nurses’ health study of 120,000-plus American nurses back in 1976.
Qi Sun from the Harvard School of Public Health used that study to look at the nurses’ drinking patterns during their middle age (average age 58) and then at their health status at 70 years plus.
The survey found that nurses with regular moderate alcohol consumption of a third of a drink to one drink per day had about a 20 per cent higher chance of having overall good health when older compared to non-drinkers and nearly 50 per cent higher than occasional drinkers.
The moderate drinkers also had better health than women who consumed more than two drinks a day or who consumed more than four drinks or more at the one time. Overall health was defined as having no major chronic diseases such as heart disease or diabetes and no major cognitive and physical impairment or mental health limitations in those who live to 70 years and beyond. “These data suggest that regular, moderate consumption of alcohol at midlife may be related to a modest increase in overall health status among women who survive to older ages,” said the study’s researchers.
But other researchers are wary of the findings, including Professor Jennie Connor who is head of Otago University’s preventative and social medicine school. She said the problem with such studies was the unreliable self-reporting of past and present alcohol consumption and that the differences in health could be due to other lifestyle differences. “I feel very strongly that there is no scientific justification for the promotion of alcohol as health enhancing for any subgroup of the population. The potential for harm is great and the potential for good is unknown.”
Likewise, Jayne Lucke, a clinical research fellow at the University of Queensland, said it could be easy to misinterpret the study as evidence that drinking is good for you rather than that regular small amounts of alcohol in middle age might be good for you. “Also, drinking a small amount of alcohol may not cause women to age healthily – rather, women who regularly drink a small amount might also have a number of other characteristics, such as good health, an active social life and a healthy appetite, that all work together to promote successful ageing.”
