Alcohol consumption and type 2 diabetes among older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.
OBJECTIVE
The objective was to examine the role of total and beverage-specific alcohol consumption on the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) among elderly men and women.


METHODS
We studied prospectively 4655 participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study who were free of DM at baseline. Alcohol consumption was obtained at baseline and during follow-up examinations. DM was defined using fasting glucose and/or use of hypoglycemic medications. We used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate adjusted relative risks of diabetes across alcohol categories.


RESULTS
During a mean follow-up of 6.3 years, 234 incident cases of DM were documented. Compared with never drinkers, hazard ratios [95% confidence interval (CI)] for DM were 0.7 (0.3 to 1.4), 0.5 (0.3 to 0.9), 0.6 (0.4 to 1.1), and 0.8 (0.4 to 1.3) for former drinkers and current drinkers of <1, 1 to 6, and 7+ drinks per week, respectively, for men after adjustment for age, BMI, education, and smoking. Corresponding values for women were 1.2 (0.6 to 2.3), 0.7 (0.4 to 1.1), 0.6 (0.3 to 1.1), and 0.4 (0.2 to 1.0), respectively. A reduced risk of DM was observed with all types of beverage consumed. Similar findings were observed when we repeated the above analyses using simple or weighted cumulative alcohol update and covariates over time.


CONCLUSIONS
Light to moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a lower incidence of DM among elderly people, irrespective of the type of beverage consumed.
Djoussé
Luc
L
Division of Aging, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 1620 Tremont St, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02120, USA. ldjousse@rics.bwh.harvard.edu
Biggs
Mary L
ML
Mukamal
Kenneth J
KJ
Siscovick
David S
DS
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare; D008875:Middle Aged; D012306:Risk; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D013695:Temperance; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology