The association between brain age and alcohol use

Alcohol has been shown to have both beneficial and adverse associations with cognitive health in aging, dependent upon amount consumed, but associations with structural brain measures are less well understood. A research team investigated whether predicted brain age differs by alcohol use among a cohort of healthy older adults.
Participants included 163 community dwelling older adults (aged 56-97 years, mean 77 years, 60% females). Individuals were categorised as: non-drinkers (30.7%), light drinkers (1-7 drinks/week; 47.2%) moderate drinkers (> 7-14 drinks/week; 12.3%), or heavy drinkers (> 14 drinks/week; 9.8%). In secondary analyses, the effect of differentiating the non-drinker group into never drinkers (5.5%), former drinkers (10.4%), and occasional drinkers (14.7%) was explored. Brain age was calculated using structural MRIs processed with the BrainAgeR program (Cole et al, 2018). Brain age difference was calculated by subtracting predicted brain age (PBA) from chronological age.
Predicted brain age was highly correlated with actual age (r = .713). Brain age difference differed significantly across groups. It was significantly higher among heavy drinkers (average = 3.0 years) compared to all other groups. Non-drinkers, light drinkers, and moderate drinkers showed younger than actual brain age, by 1.3, 2.9, and 3.3 years, respectively, with no significant differences across groups. Secondary analysis showed that brain age difference among former drinkers was not significantly different from that of heavy drinkers while never drinkers and occasional drinkers showed significantly younger brain age difference relative to heavy drinkers.
Among this sample of healthy older adults, consumption of more than 14 drinks/week was associated with older than expected brain age. This is consistent with prior literature demonstrating that drinking above recommended guidelines is associated with brain volume loss. In contrast, never drinking and lighter drinking was associated with younger than expected brain age. While the researchers say that they found little evidence for a beneficial association of light or moderate drinking, drinking within guidelines does not appear to adversely affect brain health even among older adults.
Source: Funk-White, M., Wing, D., Eyler, L.T., Moore, A.A., Reas, E.T. and McEvoy, L.K. (2022), The Association between Brain Age and Alcohol Use. Alzheimer’s Dement., 18: e069241.