Association between alcohol intake and incident hypertension in the Korean population

Background and aims: Alcohol consumption is generally associated with increased risk of hypertension. However, the effect of alcohol intake on the incidence of hypertension remains controversial due to inconsistent results across studies. We investigated the association between alcohol intake and hypertension in a Korean population. Methods and results: The two studies that we evaluated herein, the CAVAS study (N = 6259) and the Ansan-Ansung study (N = 2461), were part of the Korean Genome and Epidemiology study on participants aged between 40 and 69 years who underwent community-based health checkups (2 years for the CAVAS study follow-up and 12 years for the Ansan-Ansung study follow-up). We categorized the participants into four groups based on baseline and follow-up period measurements. We found that baseline alcohol consumption increased the risk of incident hypertension in the CAVAS study [HR (95% CI), low: 1.094 (0.848–1.411); intermediate: 1.661 (1.227–2.141); high: 1.723 (1.274–2.330)]. Intermediate and high alcohol consumption were associated with increased risk of incident hypertension in men [2.086 (1.438–3.027) for intermediate, and 1.952 (1.294–2.944) for high], but only women had increased risk of incident hypertension with high consumption [1.950 (1.100–3.455)]. In addition, we found a positive association between the alcohol consumption pattern (over 10 years) and the risk of incident hypertension in the Ansan-Ansung study [HR (95% CI), light: 1.316 (1.126–1.539); moderate: 1.445 (1.193–1.750); heavy: 1.897 (1.488–2.419)]. Moderate and heavy consumption patterns carried higher risks of incident hypertension compared with never-drinking in men [moderate: 1.292 (1.033–1.617); heavy: 1.703 (1.293–2.242)], but women with light consumption patterns were at increased risk of incident hypertension [1.572 (1.302–1.899)]. Conclusions: This large prospective cohort study revealed a linear association between baseline alcohol consumption, subsequent alcohol consumption patterns (over more than 10 years), and hypertension risk in the Korean population.