摘要：Objectives. We examined the potential relation of mental ability test scores at age 10 years with alcohol problems and alcohol intake at age 30 years. Methods. We used data from a prospective observational study involving 8170 members of a birth cohort from Great Britain born in 1970. Data included mental ability scores at age 10 years and responses to inquiries about alcohol intake and problems at age 30 years. Results. After adjustment for potential mediating and confounding factors, cohort members with higher childhood mental ability scores had an increased prevalence of problem drinking in adulthood. This association was stronger among women (odds ratio [OR]1 SD increase in ability = 1.38; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.16, 1.64) than men (OR1 SD increase in ability = 1.17; CI = 1.04, 1.28; P for interaction = .004). Childhood mental ability was also related to a higher average intake of alcohol and to drinking more frequently. Again, these gradients were stronger among women than among men. Conclusions. In this large-scale cohort study, higher childhood mental ability was related to alcohol problems and higher alcohol intake in adult life. These unexpected results warrant examination in other studies. A widely accepted definition of intelligence (IQ) or mental ability is the ability to learn, reason, and solve problems. 1 Mental ability may influence health and related behaviors because of the potential for variable interpretation of health promotion advice by persons with differing mental ability. 2 If skills captured by mental ability tests (such as verbal comprehension and reasoning) are shown to be important in the successful management of a person's health behaviors, public health implications may include consideration of cognitive ability in the design of health promotion materials and in health professional–client interactions. 3 In recent studies, mental ability has been linked to selected health behaviors. In extended follow-up of child cohorts, high childhood mental ability scores were associated with increased smoking cessation rates 2 and more health-favorable levels of smoking initiation, 4 , 5 physical activity, 6 and food intake in later life. 6 , 7 With alcohol intake as the outcome of interest, mental ability has been shown to have an inverse association with age at onset of use, 8 a U-shaped association with heavy intake (21 drinks/wk), 9 and a null relation with hazardous levels of intake (500 g of pure alcohol/mo) 10 and total amount. 11 These apparently discrepant findings may be partially explained by small sample sizes, 10 , 11 highly selected samples, 8 , 11 and differing definitions of outcomes. Using data from the Aberdeen “Children of the 1950s” cohort, Batty et al. were able to examine, for the first time, the relation between mental ability and alcohol binge drinking, a pattern of consumption defined by peak intake on a single occasion as indexed by self-reported hangovers. 3 They found that higher mental ability–scoring children had a reduced likelihood of alcohol-induced hangovers in middle age, 3 an observation that is consistent with an inverse association between IQ and alcohol-related mortality seen in a group of Swedish military conscripts. 12 Given that alcohol problems are characterized by patterns of intense drinking, 13 we hypothesized that higher mental ability scores would reveal a similar inverse relation with alcohol drinking problems. We used data from the 1970 British Cohort Study to test this previously unexamined hypothesis. These data also afforded us the opportunity to contribute to the sparse literature on mental ability and alcohol consumption.
