Alcohol use and cognitive performance: a comparison between Greece and the United States

Abstract Objectives To examine associations between alcohol use and cognitive performance among older adults in Greece and the United States, and assess potential differences due to differing drinking practices in the two countries. Methods Data came from Hellenic Longitudinal Investigation of Aging and Diet (HELIAD) and National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center Uniform Dataset (NACC). We examined those aged 65–90 years at baseline who had no cognitive impairment and complete data for cognitive and alcohol use variables (N = 1110 from HELIAD; N = 2455 from NACC). We examined associations between current alcohol use and frequency of such use with cognitive performance on various cognitive tasks stratified by gender. Results In NACC, use of alcohol was associated with better cognitive performance. Men drinkers performed better than non-drinkers on Trail A (standardized mean 0.07 vs. −0.24, p<.001), Trail B (0.06 vs. −0.19, p=.001), and women drinkers performed better on Trail A (0.04 vs. −0.09, p=.016), Trail B (0.04 vs. −0.10, p=.005), verbal fluency (Animals: 0.05 vs. −0.13, p<.001; Vegetables: 0.04 vs. −0.09, p=.027), and MoCA (0.03 vs. −0.08, p=.039). In HELIAD, fewer differences were seen with only women drinkers exhibiting better performance than non-drinkers on the Boston Naming Task (0.11 vs. −0.05, p=.016). In general, more frequent drinkers performed better on cognitive tasks than less frequent drinkers, although this was only statistically significant in the NACC dataset. Conclusion While drinking alcohol may be associated with better cognitive performance across both the US and Greece, more research is needed to assess the cultural factors that may modify this association.