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Better Psychological Functioning and Higher Social Status May Largely Explain the Apparent Health Benefits of Wine
A Study of Wine and Beer Drinking in Young Danish Adults
Erik L. Mortensen, PhD;
Hans H. Jensen, PhD;
Stephanie A. Sanders, PhD;
June M. Reinisch, PhD
Arch Intern Med. 2001;161:1844-1848.
Background Findings from a recent series of Danish studies suggest that moderate
wine drinkers are healthier than those who drink other alcoholic beverages
or those who abstain.
Objective To identify possible explanatory factors associated with the health
benefits of wine consumption through the examination of a wide spectrum of
social, cognitive, and personality characteristics related to both beverage
choice and health in young Danish adults.
Subjects and Methods Descriptive cross-sectional study of characteristics associated with
beverage choice in a sample of 363 men and 330 women between the ages of 29
and 34 years, selected from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort on the basis of
perinatal records.
Main Outcome Measures Socioeconomic status, education, IQ, personality, psychiatric symptoms,
and health-related behaviors, including alcohol consumption, were analyzed.
The outcome variables were subjected to linear and logistic regression analyses
with 2 factors (beer and wine), each with 2 levels (drinking or not drinking
a certain beverage type).
Results Wine drinking was significantly associated with higher IQ, higher parental
educational level, and higher socioeconomic status. Beer drinking was significantly
associated with lower scores on the same variables. On scales concerning personality,
psychiatric symptoms, and health-related behaviors, wine drinking was associated
with optimal functioning and beer drinking with suboptimal functioning.
Conclusions Our data demonstrate that wine drinking is a general indicator of optimal
social, cognitive, and personality development in Denmark. Similar social,
cognitive, and personality factors have also been associated with better health
in many populations. Consequently, the association between drinking habits
and social and psychological characteristics, in large part, may explain the
apparent health benefits of wine.
From the Danish Epidemiology Science Center, Institute of Preventive
Medicine (Drs Mortensen, Jensen, and Reinisch) and the Department of Health
Psychology, Institute of Public Health (Drs Mortensen and Jensen), University
of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; and The Kinsey Institute for Research
in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, Indiana University, Bloomington (Drs Sanders
and Reinisch).
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