{ "abstract": "Background\n\nWhile detrimental health impacts of excessive alcohol use are well-established, potential effects of low-to-moderate drinking remain controversial. We examined the associations between total and beverage-specific alcohol intake and mortality, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer (e.g., 20 site-specific cancers), and other mortality.Methods\n\nWe included 340,924 participants from UK Biobank (2006-2022). Alcohol use was categorized as: never or occasional alcohol consumption (≤ 20 g/week), low consumption (> 20 g/week to ≤ 20 g/d for men, > 20 g/week to ≤ 10 g/d for women), moderate consumption (> 20 to ≤ 40 g/d for men, > 10 to ≤ 20 g/d for women), and high consumption (> 40 g/d for men and > 20 g/d for women). We used Cox proportional hazard models to examine the associations of alcohol intake and mortality.Results\n\nDuring a mean follow-up of 13.4 years, we documented 22,381 deaths. Compared with never or occasional alcohol intake, high total alcohol intake was associated with higher mortality from all-causes (HR and 95%CI: 1.24 (1.17, 1.31)), CVD (1.14 (1.01, 1.28)), cancer (1.36 (1.26, 1.47)), and other causes (1.12 (1.02, 1.22)), whereas moderate alcohol use was associated with higher cancer mortality (1.11 (1.03, 1.20)) only. Alcohol consumption from spirits and beer/cider, even at low to moderate levels, was associated with higher mortality from all-causes, CVD, cancer, and other diseases (HRs ranging from 1.07 to 1.83). Yet, low and moderate alcohol intake from wine was associated with lower all-cause, CVD, cancer, or other mortality. Importantly, moderate to high intake of total alcohol and alcohol from beer/cider and spirits, and high wine use were particularly associated with higher mortality from multiple site-specific cancers, including mortality from head/neck, respiratory system, gastrointestinal, liver/gallbladder, hematological, female breast, and female/male genital cancers.Conclusions\n\nThe results suggested that low to moderate alcohol intake from spirits and beer/cider was associated with higher all-cause, CVD, cancer, and other mortality, whereas low to moderate alcohol use from wine was associated with lower all-cause, CVD, cancer, and other mortality. However, high alcohol use, regardless of beverage-type, mortality from various site-specific cancers was elevated.", "abstract_shown": true, "affiliations": [ "Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.", "FuRong Laboratory, Changsha, Hunan, China.", "Key Laboratory of Cardiometabolic Medicine in Hunan Province, Changsha, Hunan, China.", "Centre Nutrition, Santé et Société (NUTRISS), Institut sur la Nutrition et les Aliments Fonctionnels (INAF), Université Laval, Québec City, Canada.", "Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.", "Division of Human Nutrition and Health, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands.", "Interdisciplinary Program in Precision Public Health, Department of Public Health Sciences, Graduate School of Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.", "Section of Cardiovascular Medicine, Boston Medical Center and Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.", "CAS Key Laboratory of Nutrition, Metabolism and Food Safety, Shanghai, China.", "Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.", "Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, Stanford, US.", "Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China. z.chen.1@csu.edu.cn.", "FuRong Laboratory, Changsha, Hunan, China. z.chen.1@csu.edu.cn.", "Key Laboratory of Cardiometabolic Medicine in Hunan Province, Changsha, Hunan, China. z.chen.1@csu.edu.cn.", "Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. z.chen.1@csu.edu.cn." ], "article_type": "research article", "arxiv": null, "author_total": 13, "authors": [ { "affs": [ 0, 1, 2 ], "name": "Ziyue Li" }, { "affs": [ 0, 1, 2 ], "name": "Bohao Tan" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "Clémence Desjardins" }, { "affs": [ 4 ], "name": "Lu Wang" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Neha Khandpur" }, { "affs": [ 0, 1, 2 ], "name": "Yu Feng" }, { "affs": [ 6 ], "name": "Hannah Oh" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Qirui Li" }, { "affs": [ 7 ], "name": "Frank Qian" }, { "affs": [ 8 ], "name": "Geng Zong" }, { "affs": [ 0, 2 ], "name": "Shenghua Zhou" }, { "affs": [ 9, 10 ], "name": "Trudy Voortman" }, { "affs": [ 11, 12, 13, 14 ], "name": "Zhangling Chen", "orcid": "0000-0002-4995-8485" } ], "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d3xfzmq2yq80v.bib", "cited_by": 0, "doi": "10.1186/s12937-026-01361-3", "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13681817", "id": "d3xfzmq2yq80v", "issns": [ "1475-2891" ], "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42902373", "language": "eng", "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND", "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND", "licence_source": "article", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/", "metadata_licence": null, "native_subjects": [ [ "lcc", "RC620-627" ], [ "lcc", "TX341-641" ], [ "openalex", "2734|Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects" ] ], "openalex": "W7170074899", "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13681817?pdf=render", "pmcid": "PMC13681817", "pmid": "42902373", "published": "2026-07-01", "publisher": "BMC", "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d3xfzmq2yq80v.ris", "sources": [ { "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:42Z", "native_id": "MED:42902373", "source": "europepmc", "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42902373" }, { "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:45:34Z", "native_id": "72e0e6415a1e496191f26ca16034848f", "source": "doaj", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-026-01361-3" } ], "subjects": [ { "field": "medicine", "origin": "lcc:RC620-627", "subfield": "endocrinology-metabolism" }, { "field": "medicine", "origin": "lcc:TX341-641", "subfield": "nutrition" } ], "title": "Total and beverage-specific alcohol use at mid-life and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: a prospective cohort study.", "title_text": "Total and beverage-specific alcohol use at mid-life and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: a prospective cohort study.", "type": "peer-reviewed", "updated_at": "2026-10-30T13:45:34Z", "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d3xfzmq2yq80v", "venue": "Nutrition journal", "versions": [] }