From the, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2019 Oct;43(10):2187-2195. doi: 10.1111/acer.14174. Epub 2019 Aug 24.
Existing studies on intellectual consequences of alcohol-related disorders are primarily cross-sectional and compare intelligence test scores of individuals with and without alcohol-related disorders, hence mixing the influence of alcohol-related disorders and predisposing factors such as premorbid intelligence. In this large-scale study, the primary aim was to estimate associations of alcohol-related disorders with changes in intelligence test scores from early adulthood to late midlife.
Data were drawn from a follow-up study on middle-aged men, which included a re-examination of the same intelligence test as completed in young adulthood at military conscription (total analytic sample = 2,499). Alcohol-related hospital diagnoses were obtained from national health registries, whereas treatment for alcohol problems was self-reported at follow-up. The analyses included adjustment for year of birth, retest interval, baseline intelligence quotient (IQ) score, education, smoking, alcohol consumption, and psychiatric and somatic comorbidity.
Individuals with alcohol-related hospital diagnoses (8%) had a significantly lower baseline IQ score (95.0 vs. 100.5, p < 0.001) and a larger decline in IQ scores from baseline to follow-up (-8.5 vs. -4.8, p < 0.001) than individuals without such diagnoses. The larger decline in IQ scores with alcohol-related hospital diagnoses remained statistically significant after adjustment for all the covariates. Similar results were revealed when IQ scores before and after self-reported treatment for alcohol problems (10%) were examined.
Individuals with alcohol-related disorders have a lower intelligence test score both in young adulthood and in late midlife, and these disorders, moreover, seem to be associated with more age-related decline in intelligence test scores. Thus, low mean intellectual ability observed in individuals with alcohol-related disorders is probably a result of both lower premorbid intelligence and more intellectual decline.
现有的酒精相关障碍对智力影响的研究主要是横断面研究，比较了有和无酒精相关障碍个体的智力测试分数，因此混合了酒精相关障碍和潜在因素（如发病前智力）的影响。在这项大规模研究中，主要目的是估计从青年期到中年后期，酒精相关障碍与智力测试分数变化的相关性。
数据来自一项对中年男性的随访研究，该研究重新检查了他们在入伍时（总分析样本=2499 人）完成的相同智力测试。酒精相关的住院诊断来自国家健康登记处，而酒精问题的治疗则是在随访时自我报告的。分析包括了出生年份、重测间隔、基线智商（IQ）得分、教育、吸烟、饮酒以及精神和躯体合并症的调整。
有酒精相关住院诊断（8%）的个体基线 IQ 得分显著较低（95.0 分与 100.5 分，p<0.001），且从基线到随访期间 IQ 得分的下降幅度也较大（-8.5 分与-4.8 分，p<0.001）。在调整了所有协变量后，与酒精相关的住院诊断相关的 IQ 得分下降幅度仍然具有统计学意义。当检查自我报告的酒精问题治疗（10%）前后的 IQ 得分时，也得到了类似的结果。
有酒精相关障碍的个体在青年期和中年后期的智力测试得分都较低，此外，这些障碍似乎与智力测试得分的更大年龄相关下降有关。因此，在有酒精相关障碍的个体中观察到的平均智力能力较低，可能是由于发病前智力较低和智力下降更多的综合结果。
