Influence of body weight on the relationships of alcohol drinking with blood pressure and serum lipids in women.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether body weight influences the associations of habitual alcohol drinking with blood pressure and serum lipids in women.


METHODS
The subjects were 16,805 healthy women at ages of 35-54 years, and data were collected at work places of the subjects in Yamagata Prefecture in Japan from April 1999 to March 2000. The subjects were divided into three tertile groups of body weight and were further divided into three subgroups by average ethanol intake [non-, light (<15 g per day), and heavy (> or =15 g per day) drinkers].


RESULTS
In the first and second tertile groups of body weight, mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure and prevalence of high systolic or diastolic blood pressure were significantly higher in heavy drinkers than in non-drinkers, while these differences were not observed in the third tertile group of body weight. On the other hand, in all tertile groups of body weight, mean serum HDL and LDL cholesterol levels were higher and lower, respectively, in light and heavy drinkers than in non-drinkers, and prevalence of low HDL cholesterol or high LDL cholesterol was significantly lower in heavy drinkers than in non-drinkers.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that body weight influences the association of alcohol drinking with blood pressure but not the associations of alcohol drinking with serum HDL and LDL cholesterol.
Wakabayashi
Ichiro
I
Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Hyogo College of Medicine, Mukogawa-cho 1-1, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 663-8501, Japan. wakabaya@hyo-med.ac.jp
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006949:Hyperlipidemias / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D012016:Reference Values; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
D008055:Lipids