Dr Pek Kei Im and Associate Professor Iona Millwood chaired a symposium entitled ‘Health effects of alcohol consumption: evidence from large-scale epidemiological studies in diverse populations’ at the 3rd World Congress on Alcohol and Addictions in Melbourne, Australia on 23 September 2024. The Congress was co-hosted by the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ISBRA) and the Asia-Pacific Society for Alcohol and Addiction Research (APSAAR).
Alcohol consumption is a widespread risk factor for poor health and is increasing in many low- and middle-income countries. The symposium aimed to explore how large-scale epidemiological studies across diverse populations can help assess the health effects of alcohol consumption.
The symposium featured presentations by Dr Pek Kei Im, Associate Professor Iona Millwood, and Dr Eirini Trichia from Oxford Population Health, and Dr Rachel Visontay from the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, Australia. The speakers highlighted recent findings on alcohol use and cause-specific mortality in the Mexican population, causal relationships between alcohol consumption and type 2 diabetes, alcohol-associated multi-omic biomarkers, and potential pathways through which alcohol may influence risks of cardiovascular disease and other conditions.
Dr Pek Kei Im, said ‘It was an incredible opportunity to discuss with academic experts how large prospective biobank studies in diverse populations, such as the UK Biobank, the China Kadoorie Biobank, and the Mexico City Prospective Study, can be leveraged to assess the diverse and complex health effects of alcohol consumption using a variety of conventional epidemiological, Mendelian randomisation, and multi-omic approaches.’
Associate Professor Iona Millwood, added ‘The session was inspiring as it allowed us to share valuable lessons, discuss methodology, and identify research priorities and collaboration opportunities. Engaging with a multi-disciplinary audience of leading experts in alcohol and addiction research enabled us to further explore key scientific questions about the health impacts of alcohol.’
During the Congress, Associate Professor Millwood was also a mentor at the ISBRA Early-Career Investigator (ECI) Mentoring Workshop, which was co-organised by Dr Im as a member of the ISBRA ECI Association Committee to support the career development of early-career investigators.