Alcohol consumption and frailty risk

While previous studies suggest that light-to-moderate alcohol consumption may reduce the frailty risk, the dose-response relationship is still under question. To address the knowledge gap, a team of researchers from Iran conducted a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of cohort studies to examine the association of alcohol consumption with the risk of both prefrailty and frailty in adults.
MEDLINE (Ovid), PubMed and Scopus were searched to identify relevant cohort studies published before 8 May 2024. The dose-response meta-analysis was performed to investigate the associations between alcohol drinking and the risk of developing pre-frailty and frailty.Nine cohort studies with 64,769 participants and 15,075 cases were included, of which eight studies were rated to have a serious risk of bias as assessed by the ROBINS tool. Based on the analysis, each 12 g increase in alcohol intake did not appear to be associated with risks of prefrailty (RR: 1.08, 95% CI 0.89, 1.31; I2 = 91%, n = 3; GRADE = very low) and frailty (RR: 0.94, 95% CI 0.88, 1.00; I2 = 63%, n = 9; GRADE = low). The nonlinear dose-response meta-analysis indicates a slight inverse association with frailty risk up to an alcohol intake of 20 grams per day, beyond which an upward trend is observed.
The inverse association found between moderate alcohol consumption and frailty risk appears to be stronger among older adults, which might be due to the lower and less popular alcohol consumption among older people than the general population. However, because this finding is based on low-quality evidence, more research is needed to develop specific dietary recommendations for alcohol consumption, particularly among young people.
Source: Sepideh Soltani, Ahmad Jayedi, Seyedmojtaba Ghoreishy, Mahdieh Mousavirad, Samira Movahed, Maedeh Jabbari, Farzaneh Asoudeh, Alcohol consumption and frailty risk: a dose–response meta-analysis of cohort studies, Age and Ageing, Volume 53, Issue 9, September 2024, afae199