New Study Provides Insight into the Association Between Alcohol Consumption and CVD Risk

The findings of a recent study suggest that heterogeneous associations exist between an individual’s levels of alcohol consumption and their risk of cardiovascular diseases, and that moderate alcohol consumption is linked to lower risk of several cardiovascular diseases.

The relationship between various levels of alcohol consumption and the risk of cardiovascular disease is controversial. In order to study this relationship in greater detail, researchers in the UK conducted a population based cohort study of data from primary care, hospital, and mortality records involving 1,937,360 adults, aged 30 years or older. All participants were free from cardiovascular disease at baseline.
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The researchers categorized the participants by level of alcohol consumption. Moderate drinkers drank within daily and/or weekly recommendations for “sensible drinking” in the UK from the time of observation, while heavy drinkers exceeded these recommendations.

The main outcomes of the study were chronic stable angina, unstable angina, acute myocardial infarction, unheralded coronary heart disease death, heart failure, sudden coronary death/cardiac arrest, transient ischemic attack, ischemic stroke, intracerebral and subarachnoid hemorrhage, peripheral arterial disease, and abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Overall, 114,859 incident cardiovascular events were diagnosed during follow-up. In individuals who did not consume alcohol, researchers observed an increased risk of unstable angina, myocardial infarction, unheralded coronary death, heart failure, ischemic stroke, peripheral arterial disease, and abdominal aortic aneurism, compared with moderate drinkers.

Heavy alcohol consumption was associated with increased risk of unheralded coronary death, heart failure, cardiac arrest, transient ischemic attack, ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, and peripheral arterial disease, but also with a lower risk of myocardial infarction and stable angina. 

“In this population based cohort study of a large scale contemporary clinical sample we found considerable heterogeneity in the association between recorded alcohol consumption and the initial presentation of 12 cardiovascular diseases,” the researchers wrote.

“[These findings have] implications for patient counselling, public health communication, and disease prediction algorithms and suggests the necessity for a more nuanced approach to the role of alcohol consumption in the prevention of cardiovascular disease,” they concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Bell S, Daskalopoulou M, Rapsomaniki, et al. Association between clinically recorded alcohol consumption and initial presentation of 12 cardiovascular diseases: population based cohort study using linked health records [published online March 22, 2017]. BMJ. doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j909.