Hassing Linda B
Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2018 Mar 26;10:81. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2018.00081. eCollection 2018.
Studies show that light to moderate alcohol consumption is related to better health and higher cognitive performance. However, it has been suggested that this association is caused by a systematic bias in the control group as many people abstain from drinking or quit because of health issues. Therefore, the group of non-drinkers is biased towards poor health and may not be suitable as a control group. The present study examined the effect of alcohol on cognitive performance while addressing this bias by excluding the non-drinkers. Thus, instead of comparing different levels of alcohol consumption to a non-drinking control group, a dose-response association was calculated between all levels of alcohol intake and cognitive performance. The study used information from a sample of people in the Swedish Twin Registry, who in their midlife (1967) participated in a survey on alcohol intake and 25 years later participated in a longitudinal study on cognitive aging ( = 486). The cognitive aging study took place on five occasions, at 2-year intervals, and included the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), tests of episodic memory, semantic memory and spatial ability. The association between midlife alcohol consumption and later cognitive performance was analyzed using growth curve models, adjusting for background variables. The findings showed that there was a significant negative dose-response association between alcohol intake in midlife and the MMSE, and the tests of episodic memory, such that higher intake in midlife was related to lower performance in old age. The associations between alcohol and semantic memory, and spatial ability respectively, were not significant. In contrast to findings from other studies, which show that low to moderate alcohol intake promotes cognitive function, the current study showed that alcohol intake was related to lower cognitive performance in a dose-response manner, even at low levels. The results from this study indicate that the observed benefits of moderate alcohol intake for cognitive function reported by others might be solely due to comparisons to an inappropriate control group, a group that is biased towards poor health. Hence, it is concluded that light alcohol intake may not protect cognitive function.
研究表明，轻度至中度饮酒与更好的健康状况和更高的认知表现相关。然而，有人认为这种关联是由对照组中的系统偏差导致的，因为许多人由于健康问题而戒酒或停止饮酒。因此，不饮酒者群体在健康状况方面存在偏差，可能不适合作为对照组。本研究通过排除不饮酒者来解决这一偏差，同时考察了酒精对认知表现的影响。因此，不是将不同饮酒水平与不饮酒对照组进行比较，而是计算了所有酒精摄入量水平与认知表现之间的剂量反应关联。该研究使用了瑞典双胞胎登记处人群样本中的信息，这些人在中年（1967年）参加了一项关于酒精摄入量的调查，25年后参加了一项关于认知衰老的纵向研究（n = 486）。认知衰老研究分五次进行，间隔为两年，包括简易精神状态检查表（MMSE）、情景记忆测试、语义记忆测试和空间能力测试。使用生长曲线模型分析中年酒精摄入量与后期认知表现之间的关联，并对背景变量进行了调整。研究结果表明，中年酒精摄入量与MMSE以及情景记忆测试之间存在显著的负剂量反应关联，即中年摄入量越高，老年时的表现越低。酒精与语义记忆和空间能力之间的关联分别不显著。与其他研究结果不同，其他研究表明低至中度饮酒可促进认知功能，而本研究表明，即使在低水平，酒精摄入量与较低的认知表现呈剂量反应关系。本研究结果表明，其他人报告的适度饮酒对认知功能的益处可能仅仅是由于与一个不适当的对照组进行比较所致，该对照组在健康状况方面存在偏差。因此，得出的结论是，轻度饮酒可能无法保护认知功能。
