Heavy drinkers, aged 55-65, live longer than non-drinkers. Moderate drinkers even longer.
A 20 year study of 55-65 year olds, published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, showed that heavy drinkers were less at risk of dying than abstainers.
Controlling only for age and gender, compared to moderate drinkers, abstainers had a more than 2 times increased mortality risk, heavy drinkers had 70% increased risk, and light drinkers had 23% increased risk.
A model controlling for former problem drinking status, existing health problems, and key sociodemographic and social-behavioral factors, as well as for age and gender, substantially reduced the mortality effect for abstainers compared to moderate drinkers.
However, even after adjusting for all covariates, abstainers and heavy drinkers continued to show increased mortality risks of 51 and 45%, respectively, compared to moderate drinkers.
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