Vancouver Sun :: “For Gen Z and Millennials, it’s cool to be sober”

“For Gen Z and Millennials, it’s cool to be sober”

July 23, 2024, by Denise Ryan.

Dr. Catena’s Response:

In the interest of scientific accuracy, Dr. Catena would like to shed light on these points referenced in your article.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University and Stanford University Medical School, Dr. Catena practiced emergency medicine in San Francisco for over twenty-five years. She is also the Managing Director of a family winery in Argentina. Dr. Catena has extensively reviewed the literature on wine and health.  

Your article references this paper published by Dr. Tim Stockwell of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use, “Why Do Only Some Cohort Studies Find Health Benefits From Low-Volume Alcohol Use? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Study Characteristics That May Bias Mortality Risk Estimates, Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 85(4), 441–452 (2024)”

This paper has apparently been shared with media as evidence to support revised guidelines for alcohol consumption. To use this paper as source document poses an issue for the following reasons:

1. This study was partly funded by the Canadian Centre of Substance Use and Addiction, a nongovernmental organization, to assist with the development of new Canadian Guidance on Alcohol and Health. 

• Dr. Tim Stockwell and co-author Dr. Tim Naimi often cite their own studies to support their proposed guidelines, whereas the standard is to include a range of high impact, peer reviewed papers before providing important health recommendations. Dr. Stockwell and Naimi have been questioned by scientists and medical researchers in Canada because of faulty methodology. 
• Their recommendations have not been adopted by the Canadian Health Ministry.  

2. This paper was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (JSAD). The general public may not be aware that this is a low impact factor journal. Impact factor refers to the measure of frequency with which an average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. 

• JSAD has an impact factor of 2.4. 
• Studies published in low-impact journals are weighted less than those appearing in high impact journals such as The Lancet (impact factor 98.4) and Journal of the American College of Cardiology (Impact factor 21.7). 
• Studies published in these high impact journals have found evidence for cardiovascular benefits from limited alcohol consumption in the over 40-50 age group.

For example, “Global Burden of Disease 2020” study was published in The Lancet, which is ranked number 1 or number 2 in most health journal rankings.  

It states:

“Given the complex relationship between alcohol and diseases and different background rates of diseases across the world, the risks of alcohol consumption differ by age and by geographic location. For adults over age 40, health risks from alcohol consumption vary by age and region. Consuming a small amount of alcohol for people in this age group can provide some health benefits, such as reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes.”  The Lancet 2022. Health Risks of Alcohol Infographic – Global Burden of Disease Study 2020. https://www.thelancet.com/infographics-do/alcohol-gbd

Dr. Catena believes that the above study, published in a high-impact journal using reputable research methods, is being overlooked in the media in favor of a paper published in a lower impact journal using questionable methods and whose findings have ultimately not been implemented by an official government organization.