The Tecumseh Community Health Study is a series of epidemiologic investigations conducted in Tecumseh, Michigan. The purpose of the Study is to describe and interpret the significance of demographic, lifestyle and familial risk factors that may be related to disease. Since 1959, residents of Tecumseh and its environs have participated in more than 50 investigations; this population-based cohort is still being followed. Extensive information on risk factors and development of disease has been collected, resulting in more than 400 papers reporting the findings. Alcohol use was measured in three major epidemiologic studies between 1959 and 1978. Ninety percent of the cohort (N=10,393) participated in at least one of these studies, and half of these (N=5,162) participated in two or more. These data on alcohol use have hardly been used. The main goal of the work proposed here is to develop accurate alcohol use histories for the Tecumseh cohort from these data, and to make them accessible to all scientists who wish to study alcohol use and disease in a population-based sample. To achieve this goal, alcohol use data will be checked for numerical accuracy within each study and for consistency across studies. Computer files of alcohol use histories will be made for each person and for each family, using database management systems that facilitate use by other investigators. We will use the data to describe alcohol use in the Tecumseh cohort between 1959 and 1978, both in a sequence of cross-sectional studies and in a longitudinal cohort analysis. Alcohol use will also be related to all- cause and cause-specific mortality, adjusting for age and smoking; this description will permit investigators to pursue promising leads in more extensive investigations. Finally, an Advisory Committee of University of Michigan faculty who have used the Tecumseh data extensively will be formed to plan a final follow-up of the cohort. The Committee will specify the information about alcohol consumption and problems that they will need in their own research, thus maximizing its usefulness in the study of diabetes, hypertension, cancer, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and other diseases associated with aging.
