Alcohol and hemorrhagic stroke in Santiago, Chile. A case-control study.
OBJECTIVE
Hemorrhagic stroke (HS) is a major cause of disability and death worldwide. There is a dearth of information on HS from geographically defined populations in Latin America. In this study we assessed the importance of alcohol consumption as a risk factor for HS in Chile.


METHODS
Case-control study in Santiago, Chile, of 140 consecutive patients with CT-confirmed HS, matched by sex and age with 140 hospital controls. Alcohol consumption was measured in grams (ethanol) per week, using a questionnaire administered to the patients or caregivers or both. We defined four categories of alcohol consumption: nondrinkers (0.0 g/week), light (0.1-115 g/week), moderate (116-402.5 g/week) and heavy drinkers (>402.5 g/week). Other variables measured included diabetes mellitus (DM), cigarette smoking, arterial hypertension, liver disease and chronic use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID). Statistical analysis was performed with STATA 6.0 software.


RESULTS
A total of 280 subjects with a mean age of 65.5 years were studied over a 3-year period, 122 men (43.5%) and 158 women (56.5%). Alcohol intake was 394.1 g/week among cases and 174.5 g/week in controls (p=0.01). The following odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were found: hypertension 4.89 (2.86-10.3) and chronic use of NSAID 3.44 (2.15-12.9). Using conditional logistic regression analysis high alcohol intake was found to have a statistically significant OR of 4.47 (CI 1.14-17.2).


CONCLUSIONS
In Chile, a high alcohol intake (>402.5 g/week) increased more than 4 times the risk of HS and remained a significant risk factor for HS after controlling for hypertension, cigarette smoking, liver disease, blood cholesterol levels, and chronic use of NSAID. The risk was higher in younger patients (<65 years of age).
Díaz
Violeta
V
Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Hospital Clínico JJ Aguirre, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile. vdiaz@machi.med.uchile.cl
Cumsille
Miguel A
MA
Bevilacqua
Jorge A
JA
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002677:Chile / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020300:Intracranial Hemorrhages / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*