Table 1.

Demographic and lifestyle characteristics by amount of alcohol consumption

	Never N = 63	Former N = 147	Moderate N = 952	Heavy N = 397	Excessive N = 65	p-value
Sex (% within sex across drinking categories)
Men (N = 647)	1	8	65	21	4	< 0.001
Women (N = 977)	6	10	54	26	4
Demographic Characteristics
Age (years)	73.4 (10.3)	74.2 (9.3)	73.7 (9.5)	72.3 (8.6)	69.6 (8.3)	0.001
Education (years)	14.6 (2.8)	14.0 (3.0)	14.6 (2.9)	14.6 (2.5)	14.6 (2.2)	0.17
Exercise*	17.1 (19.8)	18.4 (20.7)	19.6 (18.1)	19.5 (18.2)	19.3 (19.9)	0.82
Smoking						< 0.001
(% former)	8	37	48	55	60
(% current)	2	9	6	14	28
Waist-hip ratio†	0.84 (0.06)	0.84 (0.06)	0.84 (0.06)	0.84 (0.06)	0.87 (0.06)	0.003
Systolic blood pressure (mm HG)	138 (20)	139 (25)	135 (20)	136 (19)	136 (18)	0.26
Diastolic blood pressure (mm HG)	75 (9)	76 (10)	76 (9)	76 (9)	79 (9)	0.04
Antihypertensive medication (% medicated)	37	51	44	39	35	0.05
Hypertension (%)	59	68	60	56	62	0.17
Health‡	1.87 (0.87)	2.05 (1.05)	1.75 (0.89)	1.57 (0.78)	1.65 (0.72)	< 0.001
ApoE§ (% ε4 carriers)	24	23	23	19	16	0.55

Values shown are mean (standard deviation) unless otherwise noted;

^*Exercise is expressed as Godin Leisure-Time Exercise scores, with higher scores representing higher levels of exercise;

^†Waist-hip ratio is adjusted for age and sex;

^‡Self-assessed health is on a scale from 1 to 5, with higher scores representing worse health;

^§ApoE genotype data were available for a subset of participants (83%).