Does adequate physical activity attenuate the associations of alcohol and alcohol-related cancer mortality? A pooled study of 54 686 British adults.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Pooled prospective cohort study linking population-based survey data to mortality outcomes
PubMed 32406936 · doi:10.1002/ijc.33052
What was done
Researchers pooled data from 54,686 adults aged 30 and older across 10 British population surveys (Health Survey for England and Scottish Health Survey). Alcohol intake was classified into six categories (never, ex-drinker, occasional, within guidelines, hazardous, and harmful), and physical activity was dichotomized at 7.5 and 15 MET-hours/week. Cox proportional hazard models evaluated alcohol-related cancer mortality across drinking and physical activity categories.
What was found
In fully adjusted models compared to never-drinkers, alcohol-related cancer mortality was significantly increased among ex-drinkers (HR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.09 to 1.94), hazardous drinkers (HR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.06 to 1.83), and harmful drinkers (HR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.13 to 2.30). These elevated mortality risks were substantially attenuated in participants performing >7.5 MET-hours/week of physical activity; numerical risk estimates for the active strata were not reported in the abstract.
Why it matters
Physical activity may act as an adjunct harm-reduction measure to mitigate the increased risk of cancer mortality linked with higher alcohol intake.
Limits
The observational cohort design cannot establish causality. Physical activity and alcohol use were based on self-report. The abstract does not report exact numerical effect sizes for the physically active subgroups, follow-up duration, or total mortality event counts.
Cited by
- supports Regular physical exercise reduces the all-cause mortality risk associated with alcohol drinking and almost completely nullifies the association between alcohol and cancer mortality.