For all disease/injury categories where causality was considered likely, we looked for existing meta-analyses to quantify the dose-response relationship. Because alcohol consumption can have different curvatures with different diseases (linear, j-shape, exponential), we looked for meta-analyses that allowed second or third order polynomials or fractional polynomials instead of just fitting a linear relationship. In addition, we sought meta-analyses that separated morbidity from mortality, especially for disease and injury conditions with long survival time. If no such analyses could be found, our group conducted a meta-analysis for these conditions. The final decisions on causality were made based on knowledge of all the literature, including the articles underlying the new meta-analyses and the results of the meta-analyses.
