Mortality and alcohol consumption. Moderate drinking also improves health.

EDITOR,—Richard Doll and colleagues convincingly show the beneficial effect of mild to moderate alcohol consumption on the risk of death from ischaemic heart disease and from several other causes.1 No published report seems to exist, however, on the effect of sensible alcohol consumption on health status. We describe the relation between alcohol use and quality of life related to health, based on the findings of a survey that we undertook in West Glamorgan in 1993. The method and main findings of the study, including the aging effect of smoking, have been fully described elsewhere.2 3 In essence, a random sample …