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Prior studies suggest a J- or U-shaped relation between alcohol consumption and incident dementia, with moderate alcohol consumption associated with lowest dementia risk. However, these studies were methodologically flawed (e.g., assessed late-life, rather than lifetime, alcohol consumption). In this long-term, prospective, U.K. cohort study, researchers assessed the association between alcohol consumption and risk for dementia among 9100 middle-aged people (age range, 35–55 at study inception) without dementia. Midlife alcohol consumption was based on the mean of three assessments.
After mean follow-up of 23 years, 397 participants had developed dementia. After adjustment for multiple variables, abstinence at midlife was associated with sig…