Moderate alcohol consumption as risk factor for adverse brain outcomes and cognitive decline: longitudinal cohort study

Abstract

Objectives To investigate whether moderate alcohol consumption has a favourable or adverse association or no association with brain structure and function.Design Observational cohort study with weekly alcohol intake and cognitive performance measured repeatedly over 30 years (1985-2015). Multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed at study endpoint (2012-15).Setting Community dwelling adults enrolled in the Whitehall II cohort based in the UK (the Whitehall II imaging substudy).Participants 550 men and women with mean age 43.0 (SD 5.4) at study baseline, none were "alcohol dependent" according to the CAGE screening questionnaire, and all safe to undergo MRI of the brain at follow-up. Twenty three were excluded because of incomplete or poor quality imaging data or gross structural abnormality (such as a brain cyst) or incomplete alcohol use, sociodemographic, health, or cognitive data.Main outcome measures Structural brain measures included hippocampal atrophy, grey matter density, and white matter microstructure. Functional measures included cognitive decline over the study and cross sectional cognitive performance at the time of scanning.Results Higher alcohol consumption over the 30 year follow-up was associated with increased odds of hippocampal atrophy in a dose dependent fashion. While those consuming over 30 units a week were at the highest risk compared with abstainers (odds ratio 5.8, 95% confidence interval 1.8 to 18.6; P≤0.001), even those drinking moderately (14-21 units/week) had three times the odds of right sided hippocampal atrophy (3.4, 1.4 to 8.1; P=0.007). There was no protective effect of light drinking (1-<7 units/week) over abstinence. Higher alcohol use was also associated with differences in corpus callosum microstructure and faster decline in lexical fluency. No association was found with cross sectional cognitive performance or longitudinal changes in semantic fluency or word recall.Conclusions Alcohol consumption, even at moderate levels, is associated with adverse brain outcomes including hippocampal atrophy. These results support the recent reduction in alcohol guidance in the UK and question the current limits recommended in the US.

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: grant support for the submitted work is detailed above; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

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Figures

Fig 1 UK 2016 guidelines on alcohol consumption (see www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/help-and-advice/help-and-advice-with-your-drinking/unit-calculator/) (redrawn from Alcohol Concern, 2016)

Fig 2 Flow chart of participants included in analysis alcohol consumption and brain function

Fig 3 Frequency distribution of alcohol consumption on average across study by sex

Fig 4 Results of voxel based morphometry (corrected for threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE)): significant negative correlation between weekly alcohol units (average of all phases across study) and grey matter density in 527 participants. Adjusted for age, sex, education, premorbid IQ, social class, physical exercise, club attendance, social activity, Framingham stroke risk score, psychotropic drugs, and history of major depressive disorder

Fig 5 Tract based spatial statistics results (corrected for threshold-free cluster enhancement, TFCE) showing negative correlation between average alcohol across study (all phases) and fractional anisotropy, and positive correlations with radial diffusivity, mean diffusivity, and axial diffusivity in 511 participants. Adjusted for age, sex, education, premorbid IQ, social class, physical exercise, club attendance, social activity, Framingham stroke risk score, psychotropic drugs, and history of major depressive disorder

Fig 6 Predicted longitudinal change in cognitive test scores (lexical and semantic fluency, word recall “memory”) for man of mean age (70) and premorbid IQ (118), median education (15 years), social class I and Framingham stroke risk score (10%) according to average alcohol consumption (weekly units). Predictions made on basis of mixed effects models with cognitive testing performed at phases 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 and time of scan

Fig 7 Final parsimonious structural equation model illustrating relations among alcohol consumption (average across study phases, as fraction of 100 units weekly), hippocampal volume (average, %intracranial volume), corpus callosum mean diffusivity (as multiplicative of 1000), decline in lexical fluency (slopes), and age in 511 participants. Values on arrows represent unit changes in dependent variable for 1 unit increase in predictor. Model explained 21% of corpus callosum mean diffusivity, 14% of hippocampal variance, and 2% of lexical fluency decline variance (R2). Model fit: χ2=5.6, df=4, P=0.23, root mean square error of approximation=0.03, comparative fit index=0.99, Tucker-Lewis index=0.97