Alcohol consumption and its correlation with medical conditions: a UK Biobank study
BACKGROUND: Alcohol consumption has been associated with the occurrence of many health conditions. We analyzed UK Biobank data to explore associations of various conditions to type and amount of alcohol consumed. UK Biobank is a large biomedical database providing information from UK participants, including lifestyle questionnaires and diagnosis data.
METHODS: Using UK Biobank, we examined the relationship between weekly alcohol consumption, alcohol type and the incidence of eight select conditions. We calculated counts of individuals consuming each type diagnosed with these conditions. To assess the effect of alcohol consumption on each condition’s prevalence, we used log-logistic regression models to generate dose-response models for each alcohol type.
RESULTS: The alcohol consumed included: red wine (228,439 participants), white wine (188811), beer (182648), spirits (129418), and fortified wine (34598). We observed increased condition prevalence with increasing amounts of alcohol. This was especially seen for chronic obstructive lung disease, cirrhosis of liver, hypertension, gastritis, and type 2 diabetes. Beer consumers showed higher prevalence for most conditions while fortified wine had the largest increases in incidence rates. Only white wine showed decreased incidence for acute myocardial infarction. In general, the prevalence of many conditions was higher among alcohol consumers, particularly for hypertension, 33.8%, compared to 28.6% for non-drinkers.
CONCLUSION: Although many conditions were already prevalent among non-drinkers, participants consuming increasing amounts of alcohol had increased incidence rates for many of the studied conditions. This was especially true for consumers of beer and fortified wine, but also true to a lesser extent for consumers of spirits, red and white wine.
Additional Info
-
Authors
Mayer C. S.; Fontelo P. -
Issue
Periodical: Front Public Health - Volume: 12 - Edition: 20240522 -
Published Date
2024
Related items
- Heavy alcohol consumption, depression, their comorbidity and risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality: a prospective cohort study
- The limitations of biomarkers in addressing bias in alcohol and cardiovascular disease research
- Global burden of 292 causes of death in 204 countries and territories and 660 subnational locations, 1990–2023: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023
- A preliminary study of the physiological and perceptual effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists during alcohol consumption in people with obesity
- A preliminary study of the physiological and perceptual effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists during alcohol consumption in people with obesity