The association between alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality: An umbrella review of systematic reviews using lifetime abstainers or low-volume drinkers as a reference group

Ref ID 1057
First Author P. Sarich
Journal ADDICTION
Year Of Publishing 2024
URL https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.16446
Keywords • Public health
• Risk of bias
Problem(s) • High risk of bias (ROBIS)
• Limited quality assessment or no risk of bias
• Insufficient literature searches
• Single reviewer / lack of double checking
• Poor consideration of publication bias
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country Australia
Checklists • ROBIS
Aim To evaluate risk of bias of published systematic reviews and meta-analyses indexed across PubMed/Medline/Embase/PsycINFO/Cochrane Library up to March 2022, on the relationship between alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality among
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings From five systematic reviews and meta-analyses indexed across PubMed/Medline/Embase/PsycINFO/Cochrane Library up to March 2022, on the relationship between alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality among. All five included reviews reported significantly increased risk with higher levels of alcohol consumption, but four of the five included reviews had a high risk of bias using ROBIS. One review searched only a single electronic database, one review did not specify literature search terms, three reviews did not specify that at least two reviewers performed study selection and/or data collection and/or risk of bias assessment for all articles, three reviews did not perform a risk of bias or methodological quality assessment, and one review did not address publication bias. Moreover, although sub-group analyses were reported by sex and age there were evidence gaps for many important factors. Finally, Over 70% of systematic reviews and meta-analyses published to March 2022 of all-cause mortality risk associated with alcohol consumption did not exclude former drinkers from the reference group and may therefore be biased.
Number of systematic reviews included 5
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 1272
Treatment impacted Not Applicable
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description