Citation

Dent OF, Sulway MR, Broe GA, Creasey H, Kos SC, Jorm AF, Tennant C, Fairley MJ. Br. Med. J. BMJ 1997; 314(7095): 1655-1657.

Affiliation

Department of Sociology, Australian National University Canberra, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9180067

PMCID

PMC2126835

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between the average daily alcohol intake of older men in 1982 and cognitive performance and brain atrophy nine years later. SUBJECTS: Random sample of 209 Australian men living in the community who were veterans of the second world war. Their mean age in 1982 was 64.3 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 18 standard neuropsychological tests measuring a range of intellectual functions. Cortical, sylvian, and vermian atrophy on computed tomography. RESULTS: Compared with Australian men of the same age in previous studies these men had sustained a high rate of alcohol consumption into old age. However, there was no significant correlation, linear or non-linear, between alcohol consumption in 1982 and results in any of the neuropsychological tests in 1991; neither was alcohol consumption associated with brain atrophy on computed tomography. CONCLUSION: No evidence was found that apparently persistent lifelong consumption of alcohol was related to the cognitive functioning of these men in old age.

Language: en