Beijing, April 11 (IANS): Read this carefully if you cannot imagine your evenings without wine or vodka, and especially if you are a woman.

The increased risk of death associated with alcohol intake is not the same for men and women, a study has warned.

"While alcoholism is more common in men than women, female drinkers face greater risks to their health compared with male drinkers," said Susan G. Kornstein, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Women’s Health that published the study.

A Chinese team of researchers compared the amount of alcohol consumed and death from all causes among nearly 2.5 million women and men.

It showed that the differences between the sexes became greater as alcohol intake increased.

“Females had an increased rate of all-cause mortality conferred by drinking compared with males, especially in heavy drinkers,” noted Chao Wang from Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

Wang and co-authors modelled the relationship between alcohol consumption and the risk of death and compared the results for drinkers versus non-drinkers and among male and female drinkers.