Relationship between alcohol consumption and dementia with Mendelian randomization approaches among older adults in the United States

Abstract

Abstract INTRODUCTION In observational studies, the association between alcohol consumption and dementia is mixed. METHODS We performed two‐sample Mendelian randomization (MR) using summary statistics from genome‐wide association studies of weekly alcohol consumption and late‐onset Alzheimer's disease and one‐sample MR in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), wave 2012. Inverse variance weighted two‐stage regression provided odds ratios of association between alcohol exposure and dementia or cognitively impaired, non‐dementia relative to cognitively normal. RESULTS Alcohol consumption was not associated with late‐onset Alzheimer's disease using two‐sample MR (odds ratio [OR] = 1.15, 95% confidence interval [CI]: [0.78, 1.72]). In HRS, doubling weekly alcohol consumption was not associated with dementia (African ancestries, n = 1,322, OR = 1.00, 95% CI [0.45, 2.25]; European ancestries, n = 7,160, OR = 1.37, 95% CI [0.53, 3.51]) or cognitively impaired, non‐dementia (African ancestries, n = 1,322, OR = 1.17, 95% CI [0.69, 1.98]; European ancestries, n = 7,160, OR = 0.75, 95% CI [0.47, 1.22]). DISCUSSION Alcohol consumption was not associated with cognitively impaired, non‐dementia or dementia status. Highlights Cross‐sectionally in a large, diverse sample, alcohol appears protective for dementia. We apply two‐ and one‐sample Mendelian randomization to test inferred causality. Mendelian randomization approaches show no association with alcohol and dementia. We conclude that alcohol consumption should not be considered protective.

Keywords

• alcohol
• cognitive impairment
• dementia
• epidemiology
• Mendelian randomization
• older adults