From Europe PMC via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: ppub 2021-06-01, epub 2021-06-28Publication status: Publishe

Alam, Benyamin

Anwar, Mehreen

Bareli, Leonardo

Chowdhury, Shamia

English

From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2021-05-05, accepted 2021-06-07, registration 2021-06-07, pub-electronic 2021-06-28, online 2021-06-28, collection 2021-12Publication status: Publishe

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR Open AccessAssessing the relation between alcoholconsumption and risk of disease andmortalityBenyamin Alam* , Mehreen Anwar, Leonardo Bareli and Shamia ChowdhuryDear editor,As medical students at the University of Manchester,we read the article ‘Alcohol consumption and risk ofcardiovascular disease, cancer and mortality: a prospect-ive cohort study’ [1] published by the Nutrition Journalwith great interest. Whilst it illustrates the negativeimpact that alcohol consumption can have on overallhealth, we believe that demographic confounding variables,limited assessment of consumption and insufficient followup period detract from the validity of this study.From reading the study, it is evident that a widevariety of cofounding variables have been accounted for.These include marital status, education level and in-come, however, one significant covariate was neglected.Ethnicity is a prominent confounding variable as it isknown that the risk of CVD and cancers are affected byones ethnicity and some ethnicities are at significantlygreater risk than others [2]. Additionally distribution ofethnicities are likely to vary throughout the country withsome regional lifestyles and diets having significantimpact on health. Taking this into consideration, thisconfounding variable ought to have been eliminated byincluding a question about ethnicity in the question-naires used.Alcohol consumption was assessed using a self-administered questionnaire, which grouped differenttypes of beverages into three distinct categories of ‘beer,wine, or hard liquor’. Further information that was col-lected included the amount and frequency ofintake.However, the recorded alcohol consumption values willbe inaccurate as there can be great variance in thealcohol percengate [3]. To prevent this limitation, thestudy should have included the brand of the beverage,alongside the type, to give a more precise depiction ofthe individual’s alcohol consumption.Participants medical records were reviewed 10 yearsfollowing the initial questionnaires. This assesses thecomparatively short-term impact of alcohol consumption.Alcohol related CVD, cancer and mortality normally de-velops insidiously and may take many years to manifestclinically, with an 86% incidence of CVD in patients of 80years or older [4]. Therefore this study neglects thelonger-term impacts of alcohol consumption on theparticipant’s health. To increase the clinical relevance ofthis study a further follow-up study should be held in thefuture in order to assess the negative health consequencesof alcohol consumption later in life.To conclude, this study articulates the wide variety ofdifferent health problems that alcohol consumption cancause. However, by increasing the demographic informa-tion ascertained, taking a more detailed assessment of alco-hol consumption and scheduling an additional follow-up inthe future, the clinical significance of this study could begreatly improved.AcknowledgementsNo acknowledgement of other parties is required.Authors’ contributionsEach author submitted equal contribution to the combined piece, in bothanalysis of the original document and writing this response. All authors haverevised this piece and read the final version prior to approval. All authorsaccept full accountability for the produced document.Authors’ informationBenyamin Alam, medical student, University of Manchester, Oxford Road,M13 9PL.Mehreen Anwar, medical student, University of Manchester, Oxford Road,M13 9PL.© The Author(s). 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you giveappropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate ifchanges were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commonslicence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commonslicence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtainpermission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to thedata made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.This comment refers to the article available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-021-00671-y.* Correspondence: Benyamin.alam@student.manchester.ac.ukUniversity of Manchester, Oxford Road, M13 9PL Manchester, UKAlam et al. Nutrition Journal           (2021) 20:58 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-021-00714-4Leonardo Bareli, medical student, University of Manchester, Oxford Road,M13 9PL.Shamia Chowdhury, medical student, University of Manchester, Oxford Road,M13 9PL.All authors included are first authors in the conception, production andreview of this article.FundingNo funding was received for this article.Availability of data and materialsNot applicable.DeclarationsEthics approval and consent to participateNot applicable. As this is a review of existing literature, no ethical approval isrequired for inclusion.Consent for publicationNot applicable. As this is a review of existing literature, no additional consentfor publication was required. All authors consent for this piece to bepublished.Competing interestsNone present.Received: 5 May 2021 Accepted: 7 June 2021References1. Zhang X, Liu Y, Li S, Lichtenstein AH, Chen S, Na M, et al. Alcoholconsumption and risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and mortality: aprospective cohort study. Nutr J. 2021;20(1):13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-021-00671-y.2. Cooper R. Social inequality, ethnicity and cardiovascular disease. Int JEpidemiol. 2001;30(suppl 1):S48–52. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/30.suppl_1.s48.3. Lemmens PH. The alcohol content of self-report and ‘standard’ drinks.Addiction. 1994;89(5):593–601.4. Rodgers JL, Jones J, Bolleddu SI, Vanthenapalli S, Rodgers LE, Shah K, et al.Cardiovascular risks associated with gender and aging. J Cardiovasc Dev Dis.2019;6(2):19. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd6020019.Publisher’s NoteSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims inpublished maps and institutional affiliations.Alam et al. Nutrition Journal           (2021) 20:58 Page 2 of 2

Assessing the relation between alcohol consumption and risk of disease and mortality

Assessing the relation between alcohol consumption and risk of disease and mortality.

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Assessing the relation between alcohol consumption and risk of disease and mortality.

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