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. 2023 Mar;29(3):235-245.
doi: 10.1017/S1355617722000169. Epub 2022 Apr 25.

Alcohol use and cognitive aging in middle-aged men: The Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging

Alexis C Garduno  1   2 , Gail A Laughlin  2 , Jaclyn Bergstrom  2 , Xin M Tu  2 , Kevin M Cummins  3 , Carol E Franz  4   5 , Jeremy A Elman  4   5 , Michael J Lyons  6 , Chandra A Reynolds  7 , Michael C Neale  8 , Nathan A Gillespie  8 , Hong Xian  9   10 , Ruth E McKenzie  11   12 , Rosemary Toomey  6 , William S Kremen  4   5 , Matthew S Panizzon  4   5 , Linda K McEvoy  2
Affiliations

Alcohol use and cognitive aging in middle-aged men: The Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging

Alexis C Garduno et al. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2023 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: To determine associations of alcohol use with cognitive aging among middle-aged men.

Method: 1,608 male twins (mean 57 years at baseline) participated in up to three visits over 12 years, from 2003-2007 to 2016-2019. Participants were classified into six groups based on current and past self-reported alcohol use: lifetime abstainers, former drinkers, very light (1-4 drinks in past 14 days), light (5-14 drinks), moderate (15-28 drinks), and at-risk drinkers (>28 drinks in past 14 days). Linear mixed-effects regressions modeled cognitive trajectories by alcohol group, with time-based models evaluating rate of decline as a function of baseline alcohol use, and age-based models evaluating age-related differences in performance by current alcohol use. Analyses used standardized cognitive domain factor scores and adjusted for sociodemographic and health-related factors.

Results: Performance decreased over time in all domains. Relative to very light drinkers, former drinkers showed worse verbal fluency performance, by -0.21 SD (95% CI -0.35, -0.07), and at-risk drinkers showed faster working memory decline, by 0.14 SD (95% CI 0.02, -0.20) per decade. There was no evidence of protective associations of light/moderate drinking on rate of decline. In age-based models, light drinkers displayed better memory performance at advanced ages than very light drinkers (+0.14 SD; 95% CI 0.02, 0.20 per 10-years older age); likely attributable to residual confounding or reverse association.

Conclusions: Alcohol consumption showed minimal associations with cognitive aging among middle-aged men. Stronger associations of alcohol with cognitive aging may become apparent at older ages, when cognitive abilities decline more rapidly.

Keywords: apolipoprotein E4; cognitive decline; ethanol; health behaviors; longitudinal cohort study; memory.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: No authors report a conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Trajectories of cognitive function over time by baseline alcohol intake group among participants of the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging.
Modeled trajectories of cognitive performance over the 12-year follow-up are shown for the six categories of alcohol consumption for each cognitive domain. Plots are based on all model coefficients using the group median for age, ≤12 years of education; and non-Hispanic white race/ethnicity.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Age-related differences in cognitive performance by time-varying alcohol intake group among participants of the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging.
Modeled differences are shown for each of the six cognitive domains by age for six categories of alcohol consumption. Plots are based on all model coefficients using ≤12 years of education, and non-hispanic white race/ethnicity. The x-axis shows the full age range of the study sample.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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