234903 Association Between Alcohol Consumption and Incident Hypertension

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Sharon M. Smith, PhD , Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biometry, Division of Intramural Clinical and Biological Research, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
Deborah A. Dawson, PhD , Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biometry, Division of Intramural Clinical and Biological Research, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
Boji Huang, MD, PhD , Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biometry, Division of Intramural Clinical and Biological Research, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
Bridget F. Grant, PhD, PhD , Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biometry, Division of Intramural Clinical and Biological Research, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
An association between alcohol consumption and incident hypertension has been identified but has not been studied longitudinally in multi-ethnic national samples. The National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions is a nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized U.S. adults 18 years and older. Wave 2 of the NESARC (n=34,653) is a 3-year follow-up of the original respondents. Data from Waves 1 and 2 were analyzed to examine the association between alcohol consumption and incident hypertension. Baseline alcohol consumption was categorized into heavy daily drinking (5+/4+ daily), exceeding the low risk guidelines but not the exceeding the heavy daily drinking cut point, drinking within the low-risk guidelines (low risk drinkers, reference group), former drinkers, and lifetime abstainers. In multivariate analyses, those exceeding the daily high risk guidelines had a higher risk of incident hypertension OR=1.44 (95% CI 1.09, 1.92) compared to moderate drinkers. Those exceeding the low-risk but not high risk guidelines were not significantly different from moderate drinkers in their risk for incident hypertension OR=1.07 (95% CI 0.90, 1.27). Former drinkers and lifetime abstainers were at an increased risk of incident hypertension OR=1.15 (95% CI 1.00, 1.33), and OR=1.25(95% CI 1.09, 1.43), respectively. Although race-ethnicity was independently associated with hypertension, there was not a significant race-ethnic difference in the alcohol consumption and incident hypertension association. Overall, low risk drinkers had a lower risk of hypertension compared with other groups, supporting studies which have also found a J-shaped curve.

Learning Areas:
Epidemiology

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate the association between alcohol consumption and incident hypertension in a nationally representative multi-ethnic sample.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I identified the research question, conducted the statistical analyses and wrote the submitted abstract
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Alcohol's Contribution to Health Disparities
See more of: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs