title: Alcohol consumption in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Japan.
abstract: This study investigated the consumption level, beverage preference and factors affecting alcohol intake by Japanese COPD patients. Three hundred patients diagnosed with COPD within the past four years were recruited from six hospitals in central Japan and interviewed. Of the 278 eligible participants (244 men and 34 women), 61.5% of male and 23.5% of female patients drank alcohol regularly on at least a monthly basis. The most preferred alcoholic beverage was beer (30.9%). The overall mean alcohol consumption was 29.7 (SD 42.5) g/day but drinkers had much higher mean intake of 52.2 (SD 44.8) g/day. Alcohol consumption level was significantly associated with the habit of adding soy sauce to food, gender and dyspnea but not the smoking status. The high alcohol consumption by COPD patients is alarming, with drinkers drinking well exceeded the government's recommended limit of 20 g daily. Alcohol control programs targeting male patients should be promoted to minimise the harm due to excessive drinking.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia.
authors.forename: Fumi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hirayama
authors.forename: Andy H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Colin W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Binns
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Oga
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishimura
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology*