A life‐time of hazardous drinking and harm to health among older adults: findings from the Whitehall II prospective cohort study

AIMS: To investigate associations of life‐time hazardous and binge drinking with biomarkers of cardiometabolic health, liver function, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study with median follow‐up time to CVD incidence of 4.5 years. SETTING: London, UK: civil servants within the Whitehall II Study. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 4820 drinkers aged 59–83 years with biological measurements during the 2011–12 survey. MEASUREMENTS: Hazardous drinking was defined as having an AUDIT‐C score ≥ 5 calculated at each decade of life, forming the following groups: never hazardous drinker, former early (stopping before age 50), former later (stopping after age 50), current hazardous drinker and consistent hazardous drinker (hazardous drinker at each decade of life). FINDINGS: More than half the sample had been hazardous drinkers at some point during their life‐time, comprising former early (< age 50) (19%), former later (≥ age 50) (11%), current (21%) and consistent hazardous drinker (AUDIT‐C ≥ 5 across life (5%). After adjusting for covariates, waist circumference was larger with more persistent hazardous drinking (e.g. compared with never hazardous drinkers, former early had increased waist circumference by 1.17 cm [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.25‐2.08]; former later by 1.88 cm (CI = 0.77–2.98); current by 2.44 cm (CI = 1.50–3.34) and consistent hazardous drinker by 3.85 cm (CI = 2.23–5.47). Current hazardous drinkers had higher systolic blood pressure (2.44 mmHg, CI = 1.19–3.68) and fatty liver index scores (4.05 mmHg, CI = 2.92–5.18) than never hazardous drinkers. Current hazardous drinkers [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.75, CI = 1.44–5.22) had an elevated risk of stroke, and former later hazardous drinkers had an elevated risk of non‐CVD mortality (HR = 1.93, CI = 1.19–3.14) than never hazardous drinkers. Life‐time binge drinking was associated with larger waist circumferences and poorer liver function compared with never binge drinkers. CONCLUSION: Hazardous drinking may increase cardiometabolic risk factors; this is made worse by persistent hazardous drinking throughout life, particularly in relation to weight gain, suggesting benefits of early intervention.