This application proposes a study to investigate hypothesized relationships between alcohol consumption, intake of alcohol-independent total calories and principal nutrient and selected food item categories, and body mass index, using data from nationally representative samples of the United States general population obtained between 1971 and 1988. The research plan consists of four basic steps: 1) quantitative literature review, or meta-analysis, of published reports that evaluate the association between alcohol consumption, dietary intake, and body mass; 2) analysis of relationships between alcohol consumption, diet, and relative weight in multiple cross-sectional surveys, using a comparable analytic model with common covariates, and combining results across comparable populations; 3) identification of secular trends and cohort effects in these relationships through analysis of successive surveys; 4) longitudinal assessment of the stability of associations between these factors using data contained in the National Health and Nutrition Examination I Epidemiologic followup Survey (NHEFS). In each case, variation in these relationships by sex, age, race or ethnicity, and socioeconomic status will be evaluated.
