Abstract 4675: Alcohol consumption and mortality in the Korean Multi-center Cancer Cohort (KMCC) Study
Authors: Yoo Keun-Young , Jung EnJoo , Cho InSeong , Park Bo-Young , Ma Seung-Hyun , Lee Eun-Ha , Chang Soung-Hoon , Shin Hai-Rim , Park Sue K. , Kang Daehee 
Published: June 2012

Objectives: To examine the association between alcohol consumption, types of beverages, alcohol amount and total and some diseases mortality among Korean adults.

Methods: Patients included 16,257 subjects of the Korean Multi-center Cancer Cohort who were cancer-free at baseline enrollment reported their lifestyle factors between 1993 and 2008, including the status of alcohol consumption primarily from the national death certificate. Alcohol consumption (ie, soju, beer, raw rice wine) was assessed at cohort entry using a questionnaire. Two hundred sixty-eight were excluded on the grounds that they were founded out as having no data about alcohol consumption. Final study populations are 15,989. Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) of alcohol consumption for total mortality as adjusted for age, gender, the geographic area and the smoking status, the education level and the body mass index (BMI).

Results: The number of total death was one Thousand ninety-three after an average follow-up of 8.8 years. During the follow-up period, including 483 cancer mortality cases with a total of 151,150 person-years, 6,736 subjects (42.1%) were considered as drinkers (the sum of current and past drinkers) and the majority drank soju (90.9%). Alcohol consumption was significantly associated with an increased risk of total mortality (p-trend, &lt; 0.05, &lt;0.005, &lt;0.05, respectively). Past and current drinkers compared with no drinkers was associated with an increased risk of total mortality (past drinker: HR, 1.40; 95% CI: 1.1 to 1.7, current drinker: HR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.0 to 1.4). The risk of mortality appeared to be increased among current smoking (HR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.27 to 1.79) and old (HR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.07 to 1.09) and lived women in some specific areas. The amount of alcohol intake was associated with total mortality (&lt;25g/wk; HR: 0.3, 95% CI: 0.3-0.5, &gt;504g/wk; HR: 1.3; 95% CI: 1.1 to 1.6) and disease-specific mortalities which were included total cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer and esophageal cancer and liver disease. Added to this, it was founded that liver cancer, pancreas and colon cancer might have significant relationship with mortality and it was depended on alcohol amount. And soju was founded out as having an increased risk of mortality regardless of drinking with other beverages together. Also, drinkers had increased risk of mortality due to liver cancer and liver disease. In addition to, soju drinking only without any other beverages had the increased risk of mortality with liver disease.

Conclusions: Consuming alcohol may increase the risk of total mortality and mortality of liver cancer and liver disease, particularly among soju drinkers, yet the significant relationship between alcohol amount and mortality of some specific diseases were suggested.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4675. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-4675