To assess the effect of excluding known current drinkers with missing alcohol consumption data, we did a sensitivity analysis using multiple imputation within studies, before combining the data in a meta-analysis. We investigated associations with alcohol type (wine, beer, and spirits), consumption frequency (dichotomised as drinkers who consumed alcohol on ≤2 days per week or those who consumed alcohol on >2 days per week) and episodic heavy drinking (dichotomised as binge drinkers who consumed ≥100 g per drinking occasion or non-binge drinkers who consumed <100 g per drinking occasion).
