ArticleBMC public health2016
Does low alcohol use increase the risk of sickness absence? A discordant twin study.
Article in BMC public health, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Exploring the labour market outcomes of the risk factors for non-communicable diseases: A systematic review.SSM - population health · 2024Review
- Do Differences in Drinking Attitudes and Alcohol-Related Problems Explain Differences in Sick Leave? A Multilevel Analysis of 95 Work Units Within 14 Companies From the WIRUS Study.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Education differences in sickness absence and the role of health behaviors: a prospective twin study.BMC public health · 2020Article
- The relative impact of smoking, alcohol use and drug use on general sickness absence among Norwegian employees.BMC public health · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundResults from observational studies suggest that people who drink little or no alcohol are less healthy than medium drinkers. This has been demonstrated for many different measures of health, including sick leave. However, whether these associations are causal or due to confounding remains to be clarified. The aim of this study was to use a discordant twin design to determine whether the increased level of sick leave associated with a low level of alcohol consumption, as compared to those with a medium level of consumption, reflects a causal mechanism or is due to genetic or environmental confounding.
methodsSix thousand seven hundred thirty-four young adult twins from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health's twin panel were in 1998 assessed for frequency of alcohol use and binge drinking. Data were linked to the Norwegian National Insurance Administration's recordings of sick leave over a 10 year period. The associations between alcohol consumption and sick leave were first estimated in the total study population, and then within di- and monozygotic twin pairs discordant for alcohol use.
resultsCompared to medium consumption, both low and high alcohol consumption was associated with increased risk of sick leave. When low level drinkers were compared to medium level drinkers in a discordant twin design, the results were consistent with the association being due to genetic confounding rather than a causal effect.
conclusionsThe increased level of sick leave observed with low level drinkers seems to be mainly explained by confounding from genetic factors. In all observational studies of the relationship between alcohol consumption and health, one should be aware that important genetic confounders are likely to influence the results.
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