The Relationship between Alcohol and Mortality among Japanese Physicians

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Abstract
Based on the survey in 1965 on smoking and drinking habits of physicians in western Japan, the mortality pattern among 5139 male Japanese physicians over 12.7 years was examined in terms of drinking habit. Among six groups with different drinking habits: ex-drinker, non-drinker, occasional drinker and daily drinker whose intake of alcohol was equivalent to below 1, 1–1.9 or 2 and more go of sake (1 go of sake ≃ 27 ml of alcohol), ex-drinkers had the highest risk of dying. Mortality from all causes among non-drinkers was higher than that among occasional drinkers or the lowest daily drinkers, but the differences were not significant. Among daily drinkers, total mortality was significantly increased with the amount of alcohol. As for cause-specific mortality, cancer and stroke showed a significant positive association with alcohol. No significant inverse relationship was noted for heart disease or coronary heart disease, although non-drinkers had higher mortality than occasional or daily drinkers. There was no obvious effect of alcohol on mortality from either liver cirrhosis or accidents, but deaths from these causes were few.