Wine Information Council
september 2013
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Prospective study of alcohol consumption and the risk of colorectal cancer before and after folic acid fortification in the United States

PURPOSE: To evaluate the influence of alcohol consumption on the risk of colorectal cancer according to folic acid fortification period in the United States.

METHODS: We evaluated the association between alcohol consumption and colorectal cancer by fortification period (before 1998 vs. after 1998) in 2 prospective cohort studies, the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) of women and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) of men, in which 2793 cases of invasive colorectal cancer were documented.

RESULTS: Alcohol consumption was associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer. Among nonusers of multivitamins and/or folic acid supplements, the pooled multivariate relative risk for >/=30 g/d drinkers versus nondrinkers was 1.36 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.09-1.70; P for trend, 0.02). The effect of alcohol consumption was slightly stronger in the prefolic acid fortification period (1980 NHS/1986 HPFS-1998) than in the postfortification period (1998-2008); the pooled multivariate relative risks for >/=30 g/d drinkers versus nondrinkers were 1.31 (95% CI, 1.00-1.71; P for trend, 0.10) in the prefortification period and 1.07 (95% CI, 0.69-1.65; P for trend, 0.67) in the postfortification period.

CONCLUSIONS: Folic acid fortification may attenuate the adverse effect of high alcohol consumption on the risk of colorectal cancer.

Additional Info

  • Authors

    Nan H.; Lee J.E.; Rimm E.B.; Fuchs C.S.; Giovannucci E.L.; Cho E.

  • Issue

    Ann.Epidemiol. / pages 558-563 / volume 23

  • Published Date

    september 2013

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