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Background/Objectives:Our knowledge of the association between alcohol intake and alcohol-related health outcomes depends, to a large extent, on the validity and reliability of self-reported alcohol intake. Weekly drinking measures are frequently used in epidemiological surveys, but it has been shown that respondents have problems in correctly reporting intake for a full week. The aim of this study is to investigate whether a beverage-specific question implies better recall and, thereby, eliminates or diminishes the previously reported association between the recall period and the self-reported weekly alcohol intake.Subjects/Methods:The data is derived from the Danish Health Interview Survey 2005, which is based on a region-stratified random sample of 21 832 Danish citizens aged ≥16 years (response rate: 67%). The data were collected via face-to-face interviews.Results:A beverage-specific question on alcohol intake on each day during the last week did not alter the strong association between the recall period and self-reported alcohol intake. However, the overall self-reported alcohol intake increased substantially when using the beverage-specific question instead of asking for the overall alcohol intake on each day. Moreover, the analyses indicated that interviews on Sundays should be avoided if the purpose is to assess alcohol intake for the previous day (Saturdays).Conclusions:It seems problematic to recall alcohol intake even when the recall period is as short as 1 week. Weekly drinking measures should primarily be used when the main aim of the study is to assess the average volume of alcohol intake in a specific population.

The ability to measure past experience of alcoholic beverage consumption would be useful in order to understand current wine consumption. A pilot study, using a recently validated tool, measured the lifetime experiences of 51 wine consumers. Linear increases in wine consumption over the course of a wine consumer’s life, contrasting with beer and spirits consumption, and patterns of changing attitudes were found. Correspondence analysis found associations between differing attitudes and consumption patterns. Results encourage application of the tool with representative samples of consumers. Results from the current and future studies will enable an understanding of the long-term development of preferences that may be useful for marketing strategies.

Recall of past alcohol intake is used in many studies of chronic disease, but few studies have been able to examine its long-term reliability.We sought to assess the reliability of recalled alcohol intake assessed at an average age of 70 years in 2001, after 15 and 23 years of follow-up, in a prospective study of medical students in classes 1948 to 1964.Average reported alcohol intake 15 years and 23 years prior were 6.3 and 7.4 drinks per week, respectively. Recall of alcohol intake overestimated the concurrently reported intake after 15 years by a mean of 0.47 (95% CI [0.10, 0.85]) drinks per week and underestimated intake after 23 years by a mean of 0.79 (95% CI [-1.27, -0.30]) drinks per week, mostly driven by differences between concurrently reported and recalled distilled spirits consumption. Characteristics associated with underestimation of alcohol recall were age of 71 years or older in 2001, self-report of memory difficulties, and self-report of difficulties in physical functioning. In multivariate regression analyses combining 15- and 23-year recall, subjects who reported consumption of more than 14 alcoholic drinks per week in 2001 marginally overestimated recall by slightly more than 1 drink per week (M = 1.18 drinks/week, 95% CI [-0.03, 2.40]).Although significant differences were detected, recalled alcohol intake after 15 and 23 years of follow-up is remarkably reliable.

Objective. This study examines the sex-specific associations of plasma concentrations of iron, copper, and zinc with cognitive function in older community-dwelling adults.Design: Cross-sectional study.Setting: 1988–92 follow-up clinic visit.Participants: 602 men and 849 women (average age=75 ±8 years) who were community-dwelling and not clinically demented.Measurements: Blood samples were assayed for trace elements and 12 cognitive function tests were administered. Sex-specific analyses were adjusted for age, education, alcohol consumption, smoking, exercise, and estrogen use in women.Results. Men and women differed significantly in education and alcohol intake (p’s

The authors assessed the reliability of alcohol intake as recalled from 10 years in the past in a cohort of 2,907 US adults. Participants reported their drinking habits in the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey interview during 1971-1975. During a follow-up interview in 1982-1984, they were asked to recall their drinking habits 10 years earlier and to report their current habits. In general, the correlation for recalled alcohol intake versus reported intake at baseline was good (r = 0.7). For all subgroups stratified by race, sex, education, smoking status, and disease status, the age-adjusted correlations for recalled alcohol intake versus baseline intake were equal to or higher than those for current alcohol intake versus baseline intake. The reliability of recall of alcohol intake in the past differs among subgroups with different age and education levels. Recalled alcohol intake was also highly correlated with current alcohol intake ; in particular, current heavier drinkers tended to underestimate their previous amount of drinking, an effect that was independent of other factors. These data suggest that although recalled alcohol intake is a better predictor of past intake than are reports of current intake, current drinking habits may be an important influencing factor in the estimation of alcohol intake as recalled from the distant past.

Although diet and alcohol consumption at a younger age have been hypothesized to play an etiologic role in adult malignancy, few studies have addressed these relations and few data exist on the ability to measure recalled diet during adolescence. We undertook a study to determine whether the recall of diet during high school 22 to 47 years later was reproducible within a prospective cohort of women. In 1986, participants in the Nurses' Health Study (United States), aged 40 to 65 years, reported their diet during high school using a 24-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). On the 1988 questionnaire, the participants recorded their alcohol consumption between the ages of 18 and 22. In 1994, a random sample of 275 women were asked to record again their high school diet and alcohol consumption. The average of Spearman correlations between the two recalls of high school diet was r = 0.57 (range = 0.38 to 0.74). For alcohol intake, the correlation for the time period queried was 0.66. The correlation between the two recalls of high school diet was higher than the correlation between the first recall and current diet in 1986 (average r = 0.25). There was no effect of age on reproducibility of recall. These data suggest that recall of diet from the very distant past, during a distinct time period such as high school, is reasonably reproducible. Although further studies of validity are needed, such information may be sufficiently precise to assess the influence of remote diet in epidemiologic studies.