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

In observational studies, the association between alcohol consumption and dementia is mixed. Academics at the University of Michigan School of Public Health 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.
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]).
The study found that alcohol consumption was not associated with cognitively impaired, non-dementia or dementia status.
Source: Campbell KA, Fu M, MacDonald E, Zawistowski M, Bakulski KM, Ware EB. Relationship between alcohol consumption and dementia with Mendelian randomization approaches among older adults in the United States. Alzheimer’s Dement. 2024; 16:e12598.