Alcoholic beverage preference and dietary habits in European elderly: the CHANCES project

Introduction: The differential effects of beer, wine, and spirits consumption on mortality risk found in observational studies may be confounded by diet. Objectives: To investigate associations between alcoholic beverage preference and diet in a large cross-sectional sample of elderly across different European cohorts. Method / Design: From the Consortium on Health and Ageing: Network of Cohorts in Europe and the United States (CHANCES), four European cohorts were included, i.e. EPIC-Elderly (Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, Sweden), the SENECA Study, the Zutphen Elderly Study (the Netherlands), and the Rotterdam Elderly Study (the Netherlands). The study population included harmonized data of 30,947 elderly participants from 14 European countries. Baseline data on beer, wine, and spirit consumption, and dietary intake were studied. Diet quality was assessed using the Healthy Diet Indicator (HDI; score range 0-70), which measures adherence to the 2003 WHO dietary guidelines. Intakes and scores across categories of alcoholic beverage preference (beer, wine, spirit/no preference, non-consumers) were adjusted for age, sex, education, employment, prevalent diseases, and lifestyle factors (physical activity, smoking, and absolute alcohol consumption). Results: In most cohorts, persons with a wine preference formed the largest group. After adjustment for socio-demographic and lifestyle factors, differences in food group intake and HDI score between alcoholic beverage preference categories were small and varied across countries. Persons with a wine preference tended to have a higher HDI score than non-consumers or persons with a beer preference, but differences were small. Overall, the preference for beer, wine, or spirits was not associated with specific dietary habits. Furthermore, diet quality did not differ according alcoholic beverage preference categories. Conclusions: This study performed among ~31,000 elderly from 14 European countries using harmonized data showed that alcoholic beverage preference was not associated with differences in dietary habits and diet quality after adjustment for socio-demographic and lifestyle factors.