title: Drinking habits and risk of altered liver enzymes in the general population of a rural area in Southern Italy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the overall drinking habits (amount and duration of alcohol intake, as well as type of alcoholic drinks consumed) and their potential for alteration of liver enzymes in a random sample of the general population aged > or =18 years of a rural area in Southern Italy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Of the 4000 subjects selected, 3306 (82.7%) agreed to take part in the study. Of these, 41% were teetotallers (54.4% females, 26.1% males; p<0.01). A very small proportion of subjects reported > or =4 drinks/day (11.9% males, 0.8% females; p<0.01).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Increased aspartate aminotransferase and/or alanine aminotransferase values were observed in 148 (4.5%) subjects. Hepatitis C virus positivity alone, excessive body mass index alone and alcohol intake alone were observed in 28.6, 23.8 and 18.4% of cases, respectively. After exclusion of subjects with chronic viral hepatitis infections (hepatitis B virus and/or hepatitis C virus) and adjustment for the confounding effect of age (>50 years) and body mass index (> or =25) by multiple logistic regression analysis, subjects who reported consuming >4 drinks/day were 2.4-fold (95%CI=1.1-5.2) more likely than teetotallers to have altered liver enzyme values; subjects reporting intake below this threshold were not at risk of alterations in aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase (OR 1.4; 95%CI=0.7-2.6).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings indicate that only a small proportion of the rural population studied (particularly females) can be considered as alcohol misusers. Moreover, a mild alcohol intake (< or =4 drinks/day) is not associated with alterations in aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase levels in the absence of other factors such as hepatitis viruses and impaired body mass index.
authors.affiliation: Interuniversity Research Center on Foods, Nutrition and Gastrointestinal Tract (CIRANAD), Unit of Gastroenterology, 2nd University of Naples, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Loguercio
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Federico
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bianchi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: D'Auria
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tallarico
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bianco
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fiorito
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Del Vecchio Blanco
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Stroffolini
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D004586:Electrophoresis; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008099:Liver / Q000201:enzymology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D000637:Transaminases / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D000637:Transaminases