Alcohol consumption and suicide among middle-aged men in Japan

摘要

Background Few studies have investigated large population-based cohorts for an association between alcohol consumption and suicide. Aims To investigate the possible association between alcohol intake and suicide. Method We used nationwide population-based cohortdata from the Japan Public Health Centre-Based Prospective Study cohort. Atotal of 43 383 men aged 40a€“69 years participated. Death from suicide was defined according to ICDa€“10 as codes X60a€“X84. Results During the 367817 person-years of follow-up, there were168 suicides. Compared with occasional drinkers, the pooled multivariate relative risk (RR; with 95% CI) of suicide for non-drinkers and regular heavy drinkers was 2.3 (1.2a€“4.6) and 2.3 (1.2a€“4.7) respectively. The RR increased with the amount of alcohol consumed ( P for trend=0.004). Conclusions There is a U-shaped association between alcohol consumption and subsequent suicide.