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About the Authors:
Eirik Degerud
Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing - original draft
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3502-3635
Inger Ariansen
Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
Eivind Ystrom
Roles Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing
Affiliations Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, School of Pharmacy, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4390-6171
Sidsel Graff-Iversen
Roles Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
Gudrun Høiseth
Roles Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing
Affiliations Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Center for Psychopharmacology, Oslo, Norway
Jørg Mørland
Roles Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing
Affiliations Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
George Davey Smith
Roles Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1407-8314
Øyvind Næss
Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Writing - review & editing
Affiliations Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, NorwayAbstract
Background
Socioeconomically disadvantaged groups tend to experience more harm from the same level of exposure to alcohol as advantaged groups. Alcohol has multiple biological effects on the cardiovascular system, both potentially harmful and protective. We investigated whether the diverging relationships between alcohol drinking patterns and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality differed by life course socioeconomic position (SEP).
Methods and findings
From 3 cohorts (the Counties Studies, the Cohort of Norway, and the Age 40 Program, 1987-2003) containing data from population-based cardiovascular health surveys in Norway, we included participants with self-reported information on alcohol consumption frequency (n = 207,394) and binge drinking episodes (≥5 units per occasion, n = 32,616). We also used data from national registries obtained by linkage. Hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for CVD mortality was estimated using Cox models, including alcohol, life course SEP, age, gender, smoking, physical activity, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, heart rate, triglycerides, diabetes, history of CVD, and family history of...