4 ms·

> Of those who never drank, 40% had vascular brain lesions. Of the moderate drinkers, 45% had vascular brain lesions. Of the heavy drinkers, 44% had vascular br

> Of those who never drank, 40% had vascular brain lesions. Of the moderate drinkers, 45% had vascular brain lesions. Of the heavy drinkers, 44% had vascular brain lesions. Of the former heavy drinkers, 50% had vascular brain lesions. I mean when you put it that way it doesn't seem so bad.

throwaway7783 1y ago
Yeah, it almost reads like "if you have to drink, drink heavy and don't stop drinking" - that seems to be the least harmful category other than not drinking at all!
- doubled112 1y ago
  > impaired cognitive abilities were observed only in former drinkers. Have to keep drinking or you’ll experience a loss in cognitive abilities.
ergonaught 1y ago
Yeah. The 40% seems like the interesting bit.
- bbarn 1y ago
  Yeah, the fact that 40% get them regardless makes the slight increases seem.. statistically irrelevant?
  - mikeyouse 1y ago
    It turns out we in fact have tests to determine statistical significance - and the fact that this study was peer reviewed and published means the results were indeed statistically significant! > We included 1,781 participants (mean age 74.9 ± 12.5 years, mean education 4.8 ± 4.0 years, 49.6% women, and 64.1% White). Compared with participants who never consumed alcohol, moderate (odds ratio [OR] 1.60, 95% CI 1.19–2.15, p = 0.001), heavy (OR 2.33, 95% CI 1.50–3.63, p < 0.001), and former heavy (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.41–2.54, p < 0.001) alcohol consumptions were associated with hyaline arteriolosclerosis while only heavy (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.10–2.30, p = 0.012) and former heavy (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.02–1.68, p = 0.029) alcohol consumptions were associated with neurofibrillary tangles. Former heavy drinking was associated with a lower brain mass ratio (β −4.45, 95% CI −8.55 to −0.35, p = 0.033) and worse cognitive abilities (β 1.31, 95% CI 0.54–2.09, p < 0.001). The association between impaired cognitive abilities and alcohol consumption was fully mediated by hyaline arteriolosclerosis (β 0.13, 95% CI 0.02–0.22, p = 0.012).
  - tbrownaw 1y ago
    Being statistically significant is about how good your measurement is. (In one particular way.) It's entirely unrelated to being practically significant.

throwaway7783 1y ago

Yeah, it almost reads like "if you have to drink, drink heavy and don't stop drinking" - that seems to be the least harmful category other than not drinking at all!

doubled112 1y ago
> impaired cognitive abilities were observed only in former drinkers. Have to keep drinking or you’ll experience a loss in cognitive abilities.

ergonaught 1y ago

Yeah. The 40% seems like the interesting bit.

bbarn 1y ago
Yeah, the fact that 40% get them regardless makes the slight increases seem.. statistically irrelevant?
- mikeyouse 1y ago
  It turns out we in fact have tests to determine statistical significance - and the fact that this study was peer reviewed and published means the results were indeed statistically significant! > We included 1,781 participants (mean age 74.9 ± 12.5 years, mean education 4.8 ± 4.0 years, 49.6% women, and 64.1% White). Compared with participants who never consumed alcohol, moderate (odds ratio [OR] 1.60, 95% CI 1.19–2.15, p = 0.001), heavy (OR 2.33, 95% CI 1.50–3.63, p < 0.001), and former heavy (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.41–2.54, p < 0.001) alcohol consumptions were associated with hyaline arteriolosclerosis while only heavy (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.10–2.30, p = 0.012) and former heavy (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.02–1.68, p = 0.029) alcohol consumptions were associated with neurofibrillary tangles. Former heavy drinking was associated with a lower brain mass ratio (β −4.45, 95% CI −8.55 to −0.35, p = 0.033) and worse cognitive abilities (β 1.31, 95% CI 0.54–2.09, p < 0.001). The association between impaired cognitive abilities and alcohol consumption was fully mediated by hyaline arteriolosclerosis (β 0.13, 95% CI 0.02–0.22, p = 0.012).
- tbrownaw 1y ago
  Being statistically significant is about how good your measurement is. (In one particular way.) It's entirely unrelated to being practically significant.