Alcohol consumption and risk of death in male physicians with heart failure.

Title
Alcohol consumption and risk of death in male physicians with heart failure.
Publication type
Journal Article
Year of Publication
2014
Journal
The American journal of cardiology
Volume
114
Issue
7
Pagination
1065 - 1068
Date published
2014
ISBN
18791913 (ISSN)
Abstract
The 5-year risk of death after onset of heart failure (HF) is about 50%. Although previous studies have shown beneficial effects of light-to-moderate alcohol consumption and risk of cardiovascular diseases and mortality, it is unclear whether moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a lower risk of death in subjects with HF. We investigated whether alcohol consumption and type of alcohol preference are associated with the risk of total mortality in 449 US male physicians with prevalent HF. Alcohol consumption was assessed through food frequency questionnaire, and mortality was ascertained through annual follow-up questionnaires and adjudicated by an Endpoint Committee. The mean age of subjects was 75.7±8.2 years with an average follow-up of 7 years. We found evidence of a J-shaped relation between alcohol consumption and mortality (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval] 1.00 [reference], 0.85 [0.61 to 1.20], 0.60 [0.40 to 0.88], and 0.71 [0.42 to 1.21] for alcohol intake of none, <1 drink/day, 1 to 2 drinks/day, and 3+ drinks/day, respectively [p for quadratic trend=0.058]). There was no relation between beverage preference (beer, wine, or liquor) and mortality. In conclusion, our data showed a J-shaped association between alcohol intake and mortality in patients with HF. Copyright