Supplementary table: Definition of alcohol intake and the conversions of categories

Reference / Definition of alcohol intake / Original categories / Conversional categories*
Anderson et al.2009 / 1 drink/day=13 g/day / Never/<1 per mo / 0.22g/day(N)
≥1 per mo / 0.52g/day(LM)
≤1 drink per wk / 0.93g/day(LM)
2-3 drink per wk / 4.64g/day(LM)
＞3 drink per wk / 6.69g/day(LM)
Kubo et al.2009 / ≤7 drinks/wk =91 g ethanol/wk; / no alcohol use / 0g/day(N)
7–13 drinks/wk=91–181 g /ethanol / <7 drinks/wk / 6.5g/day(LM)
14 drinks/wk, =182 g ethanol/wk; / 7-13 drinks/wk / 19.43g/day (H)
≥14 drinks/wk / 31.20g/day (H)
Steevens et al.2011 / g ethanol/day，glass/day / Abstainer / 0g/day(N)
1 standard glass = 15 g of alcohol / >0 to <5 g ethanol/d / 2.5g/day(LM)
5 to <15 g ethanol/d / 10.0g/day(LM)
15 to <30 g ethanol/d / 22.50g/day (H)
≥30 g ethanol/d / 36g/day (H)
Thrift et al.2011 / 1 drink = 10 g of alcohol / <1 drink/week / 0.71g/day(N)
1– 6 drink/week / 5.0g/day(LM)
7– 20 drink/week / 19.29g/day (H)
21- 41 drink/week / 44.29g/day (H)
≥42 drink/week / 72g/day (H)
Thrift et al.2013 / 1 drink/day=13 g/day / ＜7 drink/week / 6.5g/day(N)
7 to 14 drink/week / 19.5g/day (H)
14 to 28 drink/week / 39g/day (H)
≥28 / 62.4g/day (H)
Yates et al.2014 / 1 units /day=13 g/day / No alcohol / 0g/day(N)
0 to＜7 units/w / 6.5g/day(N)
7 to＜14 units/w / 19.5g/day (H)
14 to＜21 units/w / 32.5g/day (H)
21 to＜28 units/w / 45.5g/day (H)
≥28 units/w / 62.4g/day (H)

Abbreviations: N, non-drinker; LM, low-to-moderate; H, High.

* We converted all measures into grams alcohol per day using the definitions that reported in the studies. We assigned the level of alcohol intake from each study to these categories based on the calculated midpoint of alcohol consumption if the study did not report the median of the exposure category. When the highest category was open-ended, we assumed the dose as 1.2 times as the low bound of this category. We took participants reported as drinking <1 glass/week or <1 unit/week and those who reported that they never drink as “non-drinkers”, while those who reported that they drink 1-15 g/day were classified into "low-to-moderate" category and those who drink >15 g/day were classified into the “high” category.For the studies that reported the results for more than one consumption level within one category, the RRs within each category were combined using a fixed-effects model within that study.