Patterns of Alcohol Consumption and Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Case-Crossover Analysis

Background: Alcohol consumption has been causally related to the incidence of coronary heart disease, but the role of alcohol before the event has not been explored in depth. This study tested the hypothesis that heavy drinking (binge drinking) increases the risk of subsequent acute myocardial infar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European addiction research 2009-01, Vol.15 (3), p.143-149
Main Authors: Gerlich, M.G., Krämer, A., Gmel, G., Maggiorini, M., Lüscher, T.F., Rickli, H., Kleger, G.R., Rehm, J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Alcohol Drinking - adverse effects
Alcohol Drinking - epidemiology
Cross-Over Studies
Ethanol - poisoning
Female
Humans
Interview, Psychological - methods
Male
Middle Aged
Myocardial Infarction - epidemiology
Myocardial Infarction - etiology
Research Report
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Summary:Background: Alcohol consumption has been causally related to the incidence of coronary heart disease, but the role of alcohol before the event has not been explored in depth. This study tested the hypothesis that heavy drinking (binge drinking) increases the risk of subsequent acute myocardial infarctions (AMI), whereas light to moderate drinking occasions decrease the risk. Methods: Case-crossover design of 250 incident AMI cases in Switzerland, with main hypotheses tested by conditional logistic regression. Results: Alcohol consumption 12 h before the event significantly increased the risk of AMI (OR 3.1; 95% CI 1.4–6.9). Separately, the effects of moderate and binge drinking before the event on AMI were of similar size but did not reach significance. In addition, AMI patients showed more binge drinking than comparable control subjects from the Swiss general population. Conclusions: We found no evidence that alcohol consumption before the event had protective effects on AMI. Instead, alcohol consumption increased the risk.
ISSN:1022-6877
1421-9891
DOI:10.1159/000213641