Thinness and mortality.

The relationship of thinness to mortality was examined in White adult members of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program who had at least three multiphasic health checkups between 1964 and 1972, with mortality follow-up through 1980. A detailed comparison was performed of the mortality patterns of "thin" (decile 1 of Quetelet's index) and "average" weight (deciles 4 and 5) cohort members who were age 40-79 years and free of illness at the beginning of follow-up. Thin male (relative risk 1.

Psychological questionnaire score, cigarette smoking, and myocardial infarction: a continuing enigma.

The ability of a group of 94 psychological questions to discriminate between men in whom cigarette smoking was associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction and men in whom smoking was not so associated remains puzzling. Further analyses, controlling for reported alcohol consumption and for a questionnaire item that might reflect physical activity, failed to alter this finding. This interaction of the questionnaire responses with smoking was not found with two other major coronary risk factors, serum cholesterol and systolic blood pressure.

Alcohol intake and hypertension.

In several studies, persons drinking relatively large amounts of alcohol were found to have higher average blood pressures. The association between alcohol and blood pressure is not explained by adiposity; reported use of salt, coffee, or cigarettes; or by under-reporting of alcohol intake. We examined 12-year follow-up data on two matched groups of 850 hypertensive patients each; one group reported an intake of at least three alcoholic drinks per person per day, and the other group, fewer than three per day or none.

Racial patterns of alcoholic beverage use.

Among 59,766 persons who had routine health examinations in the years 1978 through 1980, the proportions reporting drinking among self-classified racial groups were: white, 89.5%; Latin, 84.8%; Japanese, 81.