title: Trends in alcohol use among women with and without myocardial infarction in the United States: 1997-2008.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examined the frequency and temporal trends of alcohol use among women with and without myocardial infarction (MI) in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  We pooled yearly surveys from the nationally representative Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System between 1997 and 2008. Subjects for this study were 1,186,951 women, of whom 50,055 had a previous MI. Yearly weighted prevalence rates and frequencies of drinking behaviors were calculated for alcohol use in women with and without previous MI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fewer post-MI women consumed alcohol than other women (24% vs. 46%), but the prevalence of drinking increased over time in both groups. Nearly one third of post-MI women and half of all women consumed more than one drink per day. Heavy episodic drinking (four or more drinks per day) increased over time in both groups. After multivariable adjustment, post-MI women were less likely to report any drinking or consuming more than one drink per day, but the prevalence of heavy episodic drinking and the increasing trends over time were similar in both groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Heavy alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking among women in the United States increased over the past decade, regardless of MI history. Although this may have reflected the influence of national guidelines on alcohol consumption, the increase in heavy episodic drinking suggests that better efforts to educate clinicians and women about the harms from excessive alcohol are required.
authors: Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, 375 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
authors: Benjamin K I
authors: BK
authors: Helfand
authors: Kenneth J
authors: KJ
authors: Mukamal
authors: Murray A
authors: MA
authors: Mittleman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D040343:Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology