Thirsting to understand the temporal dynamics of physical activity and alcohol use

The British Journal of Sports Medicine recently published two important papers on the health implications of physical activity and alcohol use.1 2 Relations between these behaviours surprise many because they typically exhibit a positive association.3 4 Health behaviours generally cluster into ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’ bundles, so clinicians need to be aware of this mixed clustering before integrating physical activity with treatment for alcohol use disorders.5 These findings also raise questions about the interplay of these health behaviours and invite research that will characterise physical activity, alcohol use and the dynamics of these behaviours in greater detail. To characterise these behaviours, one must first consider some basic features of the behaviours. First, physical activity is a complex behaviour and little is known about the specific features of physical activity exposure that drive the association with alcohol consumption or the extent to which this association is linear or curvilinear. The global individual difference variable used in mortality analysis by Perreault et …