Evaluation of moderate alcohol use and cognitive function among men using a Mendelian randomization design in the Guangzhou biobank cohort study

Observational studies usually show that moderate alcohol use is associated with better cognitive function. Such studies are vulnerable to residual confounding arising from systematic differences between moderate alcohol users and others. A Mendelian randomization study carried out in a suitable population, such as southern Chinese men, in which alcohol use is low to moderate and is influenced by genotype, offers an alternative and superior approach for clarifying the causal effect of moderate alcohol use on cognitive function. The authors used aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) genotype (AA, GA, or GG) as an instrumental variable in 2-stage least squares analysis to obtain unbiased estimates of the relation of alcohol consumption (measured in alcohol units (10 g ethanol) per day) with cognitive function, assessed from delayed 10-word recall score (n = 4,707) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score (n = 2,284), among men from the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study (2003-2008). ALHD2 genotype was strongly associated with alcohol consumption, with an F statistic of 71.0 in 2-stage least squares analysis. Alcohol consumption was not associated with delayed 10-word recall score (-0.03 words per alcohol unit, 95% confidence interval: -0.18, 0.13) or MMSE score (0.06 points per alcohol unit, 95% confidence interval: -0.22, 0.34). Moderate alcohol use is unlikely to be cognitively protective.