Relationship of acetaminophen and alcohol usage to renal dysfunction: An opportunity for health promotion/ education in chiropractic

Background Pain is the most common symptom among chiropractic patients and is also most frequently self-treated with acetaminophens. Also, the prevalence of alcohol consumption among young adults is high. Both of these in huge amounts present threats to the kidney. This study explores the potential effect of light/moderate consumption of alcohol in combination with therapeutic amount of acetaminophen on kidney functions.

Methods Multiple logistic regression was applied to the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey questionnaire data to assess the combine effect of consumption of therapeutic dose of acetaminophens and light/moderate alcohol on renal dysfunction. The complete multistage probability design structure was applied to generate national population estimates of United States adults exposed to these factors.

Results Over ten thousand respondents were included in this analysis [National Population Estimate =294,123,064]. Among these, ingestion of therapeutic amount of acetaminophen in combination with light/moderate alcohol was reported by 2.6% among which 1.2% reported renal dysfunction. Individually, neither therapeutic amount of acetaminophen [OR=0.91, 95%CI=(0.57, 1.45)] nor light/moderate alcohol [OR=0.53,95%CI=(0.43,0.650] was noted to be a potential threat to the kidney. However, a combination of both showed a 123% increased risk of kidney dysfunction [OR=2.23(1.22, 4.08)].

Conclusion Although individually it may not be harmful to ingest therapeutic dose of acetaminophen and light/moderate amount of alcohol, combining the two may be potentially hazardous. DCs and other primary care physicians who see a lot of pain patients that may be prone to taking acetaminophen have the opportunity to engage them in health education/promotion