The magnitude of these changes was most pronounced among participants within the highest baseline categories (men: > 250.0 g/week; women: > 100.0 g/week), where the volume of consumption fell by an average 47.0 g/week [95% confidence interval (CI) = 40.7, 53.2] among men and 16.8 g/week (95% CI = 12.6, 21.0) among women per 10‐year increase in age (each calculated as the coefficient for the average rate of change per decade increase in age within the referent category, plus the group‐specific change per decade increase in age). Changes within most other categories were comparatively small, indicating that light and moderate categories of baseline alcohol consumption were largely stable during the period of the life‐course captured by the Whitehall II study. Longitudinal trends between baseline categories were comparable when follow‐up time was adopted as the time‐scale, with adjustment for date of birth (Supporting information, Appendix S2).
