title: Moderate, excessive or heavy alcohol consumption: each is significantly associated with increased mortality in patients with chronic hepatitis C.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The impact of moderate alcohol consumption on long-term outcomes of chronic hepatitis C (CH-C) infected patients remains controversial.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the impact of moderate alcohol consumption on long-term outcomes of CH-C patients using population-based data.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were obtained from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III)-mortality linked files. Alcohol consumption was estimated as grams/day. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was utilized to assess the effects of CH-C and alcohol consumption on mortality (all causes, cardiovascular disease, and liver disease).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 8985 participants were included as the study cohort. Of these, 218 had CH-C. The follow-up time was 162.95 months for CH-C and 178.27 months for controls. CH-C patients had increased risk for both overall mortality and liver-related mortality. CH-C patients with excessive alcohol consumption had even higher risks for overall mortality and liver-related mortality. The risk of overall mortality associated with CH-C increased with moderate alcohol consumption of 1-19 g/day and heavy alcohol consumption ≥30 g/day.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although chronic hepatitis C is associated with increased risks for overall and liver-related mortality, these risks are even higher for patients consuming moderate and excessive amounts of alcohol.
authors: Center for Liver Diseases, Department of Medicine, Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, VA 22042, USA. zobair.younossi@inova.org
authors: Z M
authors: ZM
authors: Younossi
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Zheng
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Stepanova
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Venkatesan
authors: H M
authors: HM
authors: Mir
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D002423:Cause of Death; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult