Moderate Beer Drinking Reduces the Risk of Myocardial Infarctžon. Case-control Study in the Czech Population

Overview

It has been debated whether the protective effect of alcohol against coronary heart disease is common for all alcoholic beverages. In the Czech population, the vast majority of alcohol is consumed as beer, and its effects can be separated from other alcoholic beverages. We conducted a population based tase-control study to examine the effect of beer on the risk of myocardial infarction (MI). Cases were patients with a first non-fatal episode of MI, diagnosed by the WHO MONIKA Projed criteria, aged 25-64 and resident in 5 districts participating in the Czech MONIKA study. A random sample of men and women of the same age in the same district served as controls. Drinking frequency and usual weekly intake of alcohol was measured by a questionnaire. In the population sample, 7% of men and 20% of women were abstainers; among drinkers, the mean weekly intake of pure alcohol was 192 g among men and 90 g among women, 85% and 77% of which, respectively, was consumed as beer. The analyses were restricted to abstainers and subjects who did not usually drink alcoholic beverages other than beer (206 Cases and 735 controls among men and 71 Cases and 959 controls in women). After controlling for other risk factors, the risk of MI was lowest in men and women who drank daily or almost daily; the odds ratios, compared to abstainers, were 0.38 (95% confidence interval 0.19-0.74) and 0.11 (0.01-1.03), respectively. Men drinking twice a day or more often had the same risk as abstainers. In analysis of mean weekly intake in men, the relative risk for consuming 4-9 litres per week, compared to those drinking

Key words:
coronary heart disease - prevention - alcohol - beer.