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Research

Prospective study of alcohol drinking patterns and coronary heart disease in women and men

BMJ 2006; 332 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38831.503113.7C (Published 25 May 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;332:1244
  1. Janne Tolstrup, research fellow (jst{at}niph.dk)1,
  2. Majken K Jensen, research fellow1,
  3. Tjønneland Anne, senior research fellow2,
  4. Kim Overvad, research director3,
  5. Kenneth J Mukamal, assistant professor4,
  6. Morten Grønbæk, professor1
  1. 1 Centre for Alcohol Research, National Institute of Public Health, Øster Farimagsgade 5, Dk-1399 Copenhagen, Denmark
  2. 2 Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen
  3. 3 Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Cardiovascular Research Center, Aarhus University Hospital, Aalborg
  4. 4 Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, USA
  1. Correspondence to: J Tolstrup
  • Accepted 7 March 2006

Abstract

Objective To determine the association between alcohol drinking patterns and risk of coronary heart disease in women and men.

Design Population based cohort study.

Setting Denmark, 1993-2002.

Participants 28 448 women and 25 052 men aged 50-65 years, who were free of cardiovascular disease at entry to the study.

Main outcome measures Incidence of coronary heart disease occurring during a median follow-up period of 5.7 years.

Results 749 and 1283 coronary heart disease events occurred among women and men. Women who drank alcohol on at least one day a week had a lower risk of coronary heart disease than women who drank alcohol on less than one day a week. Little difference was found, however, between drinking frequency: one day a week (hazard ratio 0.64, 95% confidence interval 0.51 to 0.81), 2-4 days a week (0.63, 0.52 to 0.77), five or six days a week (0.79, 0.61 to 1.03), and seven days a week (0.65, 0.51 to 0.84). For men an inverse association was found between drinking frequency and risk of coronary heart disease across the entire range of drinking frequencies. The lowest risk was observed among men who drank daily (0.59, 0.48 to 0.71) compared with men who drank alcohol on less than one day a week.

Conclusions Among women alcohol intake may be the primary determinant of the inverse association between drinking alcohol and risk of coronary heart disease whereas among men, drinking frequency, not alcohol intake, seems more important.

Footnotes

  • Funding This study was supported by grants from the Health Insurance Foundation, the Ministry of the Interior and Health, the Danish Cancer Society, and the Danish National Board of Health.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Ethical approval This study was approved by the ethical committees for the Copenhagen and Aarhus municipalities (KF 01-116/96).

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