PNEUMONIA IS one of the most frequent infectious diseases and ranks as the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.¹ More than 4 million Americans are estimated to develop pneumonia annually.² Risk factors for mortality of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) among hospitalized patients^3-6 and for developing CAP in case-controlled studies were identified.^7-9 However, a few investigations^10-12 have focused on risk factors for CAP in a general population. Relations between lifestyle factors such as cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, and body weight and risk for developing pneumonia leading to death or hospitalization were examined.^3,8,10,11,13

The relation between measures of adiposity and mortality has been a controversial topic. The authors examined prospectively the relation between several measures of adiposity and risks of overall and cause-specific mortality in 39,756 US men aged 40–75 years. During 10 years of follow-up (1986–1996), 1,972 deaths (747 from cancer, 423 from cardiovascular disease, and 802 from other causes) were documented. An elevated risk of death among the leanest men was partly accounted for by excess mortality during early follow-up and high mortality among those with a history of recent weight loss. After exclusion of men with substantial recent weight loss and deaths occurring during the first 4 years of follow-up, overall and cardiovascular disease mortality among men aged <65 years increased linearly with greater body mass index (BMI) (weight (kg)/height (m)²); multivariate relative risks for overall mortality were 1.0 (referent) for a BMI of <23, 1.21 for a BMI of 23–24.9, 1.19 for a BMI of 25–26.9, 1.39 for a BMI of 27–29.9, and 1.97 for a BMI of ≥30 (test for trend: p < 0.001). Among men aged ≥65 years, there were no significant relations between BMI and overall, cardiovascular disease, or cancer mortality risk. However, waist circumference strongly predicted risk of death from cardiovascular disease among the older men. These findings indicated that the relation between body fat and mortality was influenced by reverse causation and varied by age. Am J Epidemiol 2000;152:264–71.

Background: Alcohol consumption is related to the prevalent metabolic syndrome. Few studies have evaluated the effects of alcohol consumption on the development of metabolic syndrome. Objective: We examined the association between alcohol consumption and incident metabolic syndrome. Design: This was a prospective cohort study of 3833 male and female Koreans aged 40–69 y and free of the metabolic syndrome at baseline. Information on alcohol consumption was obtained periodically from interviewer-administered questionnaires. Incident cases of the metabolic syndrome were identified by biennial health examinations during 4 y of follow-up between 2003 and 2006. Results: Compared with nondrinkers, the multivariate relative risk [RR (95% CI)] of the metabolic syndrome for very light drinkers consuming 0.1 to 5 g of alcohol per day (g/d) was 1.06 (0.71, 1.58), that for light drinkers consuming 5.1 to 15 g/d was 1.13 (0.69, 1.83), that for moderate drinkers consuming 15.1 to 30 g/d was 1.25 (0.75, 2.09), and that for heavy drinkers consuming >30 g/d was 1.63 (1.02, 2.62). All individual components of the metabolic syndrome were significantly associated with heavy drinking, particularly among heavy liquor drinkers. Conclusions: Heavy drinking, in particular among liquor drinkers, is associated with an increased risk of the metabolic syndrome by influencing its components. Further data are warranted to clarify the association between drinking minimal alcohol and the metabolic syndrome as well as the beverage-specific association for drinking beer or wine.

Background: Genome-wide association (GWA) studies regarding the quantitative trait of alcohol consumption are limited.Objective: The objective of the