ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2018
Alcohol consumption and risk of dementia: 23 year follow-up of Whitehall II cohort study.
Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 149 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
149 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 277 citations in OpenAlex.
- Alcohol consumption and risk of dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Internal medicine journal · 2026Pooled it
- Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations: Vascular cognitive impairment, 7th edition practice guidelines update, 2024.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Guideline
- Association between Wine Consumption with Cardiovascular Disease and Cardiovascular Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Alcohol use, dementia risk, and sex: a systematic review and assessment of alcohol-attributable dementia cases in Europe.BMC geriatrics · 2023Pooled it
- The relationship between alcohol use and dementia in adults aged more than 60 years: a combined analysis of prospective, individual-participant data from 15 international studies.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2023Pooled it
- How are people with mild cognitive impairment or subjective memory complaints managed in primary care? A systematic review.Family practice · 2021Pooled it
- Alcohol, coffee and tea intake and the risk of cognitive deficits: a dose-response meta-analysis.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2021Pooled it
- Interpreting the Evidence on Wine Consumption and Health: A Narrative Review of the J-Shaped Association and Contemporary Alcohol Guidelines.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Article
- The interaction of sleep characteristics and work-related stress in relation to the risk of dementia: findings from a Swedish cohort study.European journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Adolescent intermittent ethanol exacerbates amyloid-β with age in the dorsal hippocampus of female TgF344-AD rats.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2026Article
- AlteredeNeuro · 2026Article
- Review
- The relationship between alcohol use disorder, measures of cognitive decline, and Alzheimer disease biomarkers in middle aged and older adults.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- Development and validation of the LateDem-Risk score to predict dementia incidence in the InveCe.Ab and Trelong Italian cohorts.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Relationships between alcohol use and dementia: protocol for an observational study in the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Alcohol-Induced Dysregulation of Hydrogen Sulfide Signaling in Alzheimer's Disease-International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Mixed primary progressive aphasia and alcohol use disorder: a case of detailed clinical phenotyping outperforming molecular imaging.Neurocase · 2026Article
- Cognitive decline in U.S. military veterans: risk factors and clinical implications.Frontiers in dementia · 2026Article
- Association between frailty and cognitive impairment in elderly patients with acute cerebral infarction.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
89 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo examine the association between alcohol consumption and risk of dementia.
designProspective cohort study.
settingCivil service departments in London (Whitehall II study).
participants9087 participants aged 35-55 years at study inception (1985/88).
main outcome measuresIncident dementia, identified through linkage to hospital, mental health services, and mortality registers until 2017. Measures of alcohol consumption were the mean from three assessments between 1985/88 and 1991/93 (midlife), categorised as abstinence, 1-14 units/week, and >14 units/week; 17 year trajectories of alcohol consumption based on five assessments of alcohol consumption between 1985/88 and 2002/04; CAGE questionnaire for alcohol dependence assessed in 1991/93; and hospital admission for alcohol related chronic diseases between 1991 and 2017.
results397 cases of dementia were recorded over a mean follow-up of 23 years. Abstinence in midlife was associated with a higher risk of dementia (hazard ratio 1.47, 95% confidence interval 1.15 to 1.89) compared with consumption of 1-14 units/week. Among those drinking >14 units/week, a 7 unit increase in alcohol consumption was associated with a 17% (95% confidence interval 4% to 32%) increase in risk of dementia. CAGE score >2 (hazard ratio 2.19, 1.29 to 3.71) and alcohol related hospital admission (4.28, 2.72 to 6.73) were also associated with an increased risk of dementia. Alcohol consumption trajectories from midlife to early old age showed long term abstinence (1.74, 1.31 to 2.30), decrease in consumption (1.55, 1.08 to 2.22), and long term consumption >14 units/week (1.40, 1.02 to 1.93) to be associated with a higher risk of dementia compared with long term consumption of 1-14 units/week. Analysis using multistate models suggested that the excess risk of dementia associated with abstinence in midlife was partly explained by cardiometabolic disease over the follow-up as the hazard ratio of dementia in abstainers without cardiometabolic disease was 1.33 (0.88 to 2.02) compared with 1.47 (1.15 to 1.89) in the entire population.
conclusionThe risk of dementia was increased in people who abstained from alcohol in midlife or consumed >14 units/week. In several countries, guidelines define thresholds for harmful alcohol consumption much higher than 14 units/week. The present findings encourage the downward revision of such guidelines to promote cognitive health at older ages.
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