Difficulty in demonstrating a risk from drinking pattern in fourteen years of coronary heart disease morbidity and mortality: the Lung Health Study.
The health effects of a binge pattern of alcohol consumption have not been widely investigated. The objective of this study is to evaluate cardiovascular consequences of drinking eight or more drinks at a sitting and of usual drinking of alcohol among 3702 men in the Lung Health Study (LHS), a clinical trial where heavy drinkers were excluded from enrollment. Using a 14-year follow-up period, survival graphs were examined. Cox proportional hazards regressions were performed on time to first event for documented hospitalizations and deaths due to coronary heart disease (CHD). The upper two quartiles of usual drinking were protective against CHD in men [hazard ratios (HRs) 0.76 and 0.69] in adjusted models. When eight or more drinks per occasion was combined with models of usual drinking quartiles, its effect was not significant. The measure of eight or more drinks in these data appears to act as a surrogate for heavy drinking, and does not provide a suitable test of the effect of drinking pattern in men, due primarily to the exclusion of heavier drinkers at baseline. The alcohol effects in women in this study were not significant.
Murray
Robert P
RP
Alcohol and Tobacco Research Unit, University of Manitoba, MS-740B, 820 Sherbrook Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3A 1R9. rmurray@hsc.mb.ca
Connett
John E
JE
Mäkelä
Pia
P
Rehm
Jürgen
J
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000506:poisoning*; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D000431:Ethanol / Q000506:poisoning*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009017:Morbidity; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors
D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol