Alcohol consumption is a major cause of death and disability worldwide. Despite its hazards, alcohol consumption is still widespread and has been increasing in many low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, the associations of alcohol drinking with many diseases and causal nature of the associations, especially moderate drinking, remain uncertain. Furthermore, the underlying mechanisms through which alcohol influences different diseases are still poorly understood.
The proposed research aims to investigate comprehensively the causal relevance of alcohol drinking for a phenome-wide range of mental and physical health outcomes and to explore the underlying biological mechanisms. It will utilise genetic, multi-omics and extensive health record data in the UK Biobank. There are four integrated work packages, covering (i) associations of alcohol drinking with health-related traits and disease risks; (ii) genetic epidemiology to assess causality of alcohol-disease/traits associations; (iii) multi-omic (proteomics, metabolomics) approaches to identify novel alcohol-associated biomarkers and disease pathways; and (iv) alcohol-attributable disease burden. The findings will be compared and meta-analysed with those from large-scale prospective cohort studies in other diverse populations (e.g. China Kadoorie Biobank).
It is expected that the primary analyses will be complete within 3 years, with applications for extension to allow for secondary analyses and more in-depth investigations. The study findings will expand the understanding of the scope and causal pathways of alcohol-related health impacts, contributing evidence to advance prevention and management of alcohol-related diseases and inform alcohol control policies.