Table 2.

Weighted mean relative risk (RR) estimates of all-cause mortality adjusted for between-study variation for different categories of drinkers compared with abstainers (N = 87 studies and 523 risk estimates) with tests of publication bias and heterogeneity, but not adjusted for study characteristics

			Adjusted M RR [95% CI] vs. abstainers			Adjusted M RR [95% CI] vs. occasional drinkers
Drinking categories	n of studies	n of estimates	RR [95% CI]	t test p	Heterogeneity I2 % [95% CI]	RR [95% CI]	t test p
Abstainer			1.00			1.19 [1.12, 1.27]	<.0001
Former drinker	21	42	1.22 [1.14, 1.31]	<.0001	65.34 [52.01, 74.97]	1.45 [1.33, 1.59]	<.0001
Occasional (<1.30 g/day)	15	32	0.84 [0.79, 0.89]	<.0001	60.50 [41.91, 73.15]	1.00
Low volume (1.30–<25 g/day)	81	229	0.86 [0.83, 0.90]	<.0001	64.96 [59.71, 69.52]	1.02 [0.95, 1.10]	.5222
Medium volume (25–<45 g/day)	63	105	0.95 [0.91, 1.00]	.0313	79.50 [75.51, 82.84]	1.13 [1.05, 1.22]	<.0010
High volume (45–<65 g/day)	44	61	1.12 [1.07, 1.17]	<.0001	82.02 [77.48, 85.65]	1.33 [1.24, 1.44]	<.0001
Higher volume (≥65 g/day)	33	54	1.29 [1.22, 1.36]	<.0001	83.33 [78.92, 86.81]	1.52 [1.40, 1.66]	<.0001
All drinkers combined	87	523	1.00 [0.85, 1.17]	.9613	84.36 [83.17, 85.47]	1.24 [1.08, 1.42]	.0133

Notes: Significant RRs in bold. CI = confidence interval.