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Epidemiology

The associations of alcohol, coffee and tobacco consumption with gait in a community-dwelling population

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 70, pages 116–122 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Gait is an important health indicator, relating strongly to the risk of falling, morbidity and mortality. In a community-dwelling population, we investigated associations of alcohol, coffee and tobacco consumption with gait.

Subjects/Methods:

Two thousand forty-six non-demented participants from the Rotterdam Study underwent gait assessment by electronic walkway. We measured gait velocity and Global Gait, which is the average of seven gait domains: Rhythm, Phases, Variability, Pace, Tandem, Turning and Base of Support. Alcohol, coffee and tobacco consumption was assessed by questionnaires. With analysis of covariance, we investigated associations of consumption of alcoholic beverages, coffee consumption and smoking with Global Gait, gait velocity and the seven individual gait domains.

Results:

In all, 81.9% of participants drank alcohol, 92.4% drank coffee, 17.3% were current smokers and 50.9% were past smokers. Moderate alcohol consumption (1–3 glasses per day) associated with better gait, as measured by Global Gait (0.20 standard deviations (s.d.) (95% confidence interval: 0.10; 0.31)), gait velocity (2.65 cm/s (0.80; 4.50)), Rhythm and Variability. Consuming high amounts of coffee (>3 cups per day) associated with better Global Gait (0.18 s.d. (0.08; 0.28)), gait velocity (2.63 cm/s (0.80; 4.45)), Pace, Turning and Variability. Current smoking associated with worse Global Gait (−0.11 s.d. (−0.21; 0.00)), gait velocity (−3.47 cm/s (−5.33; −1.60)), Rhythm and Pace, compared with non-smokers.

Conclusions:

In a community-dwelling population, consuming >1 cup of coffee and 1–3 glasses of alcohol relate to better gait, whereas smoking is related to worse gait. Further studies are required to evaluate whether interventions targeting substance consumption may aid to prevent or reduce gait deterioration and thereby related health problems.

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Acknowledgements

The Rotterdam Study is sponsored by the Erasmus Medical Centre and Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMW), The Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (RIDE), The Netherlands Genomics Initiative, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, the European Commission (DG XII) and the Municipality of Rotterdam. Further support was obtained from the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC). None of the funding sources had any involvement in the collection, analysis, writing, interpretation or decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Author Contributions

MAI, JCK-dJ, AH, OHF and JNvdG designed the study. VJAV collected and analysed the data. VJAV, AM, MAI and JNvdG drafted the manuscript. All authors had an important role in interpreting the results and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors have approved the final version of the manuscript. The corresponding author confirms that he has had full access to the data in the study and final responsibility for the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC University Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    V J A Verlinden, A Maksimovic, S S Mirza, M A Ikram, J C Kiefte-de Jong, A Hofman, O H Franco & H Tiemeier

  2. Department of Radiology, Erasmus MC University Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    V J A Verlinden & M A Ikram

  3. Department of Neurology, Erasmus MC University Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    M A Ikram

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Erasmus MC University Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    H Tiemeier

  5. Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC University Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    J N van der Geest

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  1. V J A Verlinden
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Correspondence to M A Ikram.

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Verlinden, V., Maksimovic, A., Mirza, S. et al. The associations of alcohol, coffee and tobacco consumption with gait in a community-dwelling population. Eur J Clin Nutr 70, 116–122 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.120

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