NEUROLOGY2013539973 326..331

Published Ahead of Print on January 15, 2014 as 10.1212/WNL.0000000000000063 Alcohol consumption and cognitive decline in early old age Séverine Sabia, PhD ABSTRACT Alexis Elbaz, MD, PhD Objective: To examine the association between alcohol consumption in midlife and subsequent Annie Britton, PhD cognitive decline. Steven Bell, PhD Methods: Data are from 5,054 men and 2,099 women from the Whitehall II cohort study with a Aline Dugravot, MSc mean age of 56 years (range 44–69 years) at first cognitive assessment. Alcohol consumption Martin Shipley, MSc was assessed 3 times in the 10 years preceding the first cognitive assessment (1997–1999). Mika Kivimaki, PhD Cognitive tests were repeated in 2002–2004 and 2007–2009. The cognitive test battery Archana Singh-Manoux, included 4 tests assessing memory and executive function; a global cognitive score summarized PhD performances across these tests. Linear mixed models were used to assess the association between alcohol consumption and cognitive decline, expressed as z scores (mean5 0, SD5 1). Correspondence to Results:Inmen,therewerenodifferencesincognitivedeclineamongalcoholabstainers,quitters, Dr. Sabia: and light or moderate alcohol drinkers (,20 g/d). However, alcohol consumption$36 g/d was s.sabia@ucl.ac.uk associated with faster decline in all cognitive domains compared with consumption between 0.1 and 19.9 g/d: mean difference (95% confidence interval) in 10-year decline in the global cognitivescore520.10(20.16,20.