Because prior literature indicated that the association between alcohol use patterns and morbidity/mortality may be different for men and women (Klatsky and Udaltsova 2007), secondary analyses included stratification by gender. To minimize the effect of comorbid smoking on mortality, secondary analyses were run on the subset of individuals who were never smokers, defined by smoking fewer than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime. Secondary analyses stratified by gender and smoking status were run by using the domain statement in proc surveyphreg. Finally, to ensure observed associations were not due to survey year, we ran stratified analyses for each survey year and meta-analyzed the results.
