The finding of a negative correlation between AC-frequency and MD may seem counterintuitive, but is supported by earlier studies that report opposing effects of quantity and frequency on health. For example, high drinking quantity is associated with increased all-cause mortality risk while the frequency of drinking does not show such an association (Breslow and Graubard, 2008). Additionally, in line with our findings, it was recently shown that MD is associated in opposite directions with two aspects of problematic drinking as assessed by the AUDIT: AUDIT-consumption (i.e. assessing frequency of consumption) (rg = −0.23) and AUDIT-problematic consequences (rg = + 0.26) (Sanchez-Roige et al., 2018). Our findings support the notion that MD is genetically positively correlated with measures of problematic drinking (i.e. AD and AC-quantity), but is negatively correlated with the frequency of consumption.
