Risk of somatic disease and mortality in individuals of parents with alcohol use disorder: a register‐based cohort study

Aims To estimate the risks of 12 types of somatic disease—alcohol‐related, blood, cancer, circulatory, digestive, endocrine and metabolic, genitourinary, infectious, musculoskeletal, nervous, respiratory and skin—in individuals with parental alcohol use disorder (AUD) versus a reference population, and to estimate the risks of all‐cause mortality and of death from an alcohol‐related cause. Design Matched cohort study followed‐up through nation‐wide health registries. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Setting Denmark. Participants A total of 14 008 individuals born 1962–2003 of parents with AUD and 139 087 reference offspring randomly selected from the Danish Civil Registration System were followed from their 15th birthday and onward during 1970–2018. Follow‐up time ranged between 2 423 955 and 3 208 366 person‐years for somatic diseases and was 3 214 411 person‐years for all‐cause and alcohol‐related mortality. Measurements Information on somatic disease was obtained from the Danish National Patient Registry. Causes of death were obtained from the Danish Cause of Death Registry. Findings Individuals of parents with AUD had a higher risk of alcohol‐related diseases (HR = 2.70, 95% CI = 2.24–3.24) compared with the reference individuals. Higher HRs among individuals with parental AUD compared with reference individuals were also observed in all other somatic diseases except for cancer. All‐cause mortality (HR = 1.80, 95% CI = 1.63–2.00) and alcohol‐related mortality (HR = 3.28, 95% CI = 2.11–5.08) were higher among individuals of parents with AUD compared with the reference individuals. No significant differences were found in relation to the gender of either parents or offspring. Conclusions In Denmark, parental alcohol use disorder appears to predict alcohol‐related and non‐alcohol‐related somatic morbidity and mortality in offspring.