(Stroke. 1995;26:1768-1773.)
© 1995 American Heart Association, Inc.
Articles |
From Karolinska Institute, Psychiatric Clinic for Alcohol and Drug Dependence, St Göran's Hospital (H.H., S.A.); Unit of Alcohol and Drug Epidemiology, Department of International Health and Social Medicine, Karolinska Institute (A.R., A.L.); and Center for Epidemiology at the National Board of Health and Welfare (M.G. de V.), Stockholm, Sweden.
Correspondence to Dr Helen Hansagi, Karolinska Institute, Psychiatric Clinic for Alcohol and Drug Dependence, St Göran's Hospital, Box 12557, S-102 29 Stockholm, Sweden.
| Abstract |
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Methods Data on alcohol habits were obtained from a questionnaire in 1967. The subsequent 20 years yielded 769 deaths from stroke, of which 574 were ischemic. Relative mortality risks (RR) were estimated from logistic regression analyses with lifelong alcohol abstainers as a reference group. Adjustments were made for age and smoking.
Results No association was found between alcohol intake and hemorrhagic stroke. An elevated risk of ischemic stroke was found for men who drank infrequently, that is, a few times a year or less often (RR, 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3 to 3.2), for those who were intoxicated now and then (RR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.1 to 2.8), and for those who reported "binge" drinking a few times in the year or less often (RR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1 to 2.5). Among women only ex-drinkers had an elevated risk of dying of ischemic stroke (RR, 3.3; 95% CI, 1.5 to 7.2). The risk was reduced for women who had an estimated average consumption of 0 to 5 g pure alcohol per day (RR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.5 to 0.8); for those who did not drink every day (RR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.5 to 0.9); and for those who never "went on a binge" (RR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.5 to 0.8) or became intoxicated (RR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.5 to 0.9).
Conclusions Drinking habits were associated only with deaths from ischemic stroke, and the risk patterns were different for men and women. In analyses, ex-drinkers should not be included with lifelong abstainers, since the former tend to run high health risks.
Key Words: alcohol drinking cerebrovascular disorders mortality
| Introduction |
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The association has generally been similar in studies with mortality as an end point and in studies of incidence based on hospital discharge records.10 11 Stroke is the third leading cause of mortality in most industrialized countries and a major cause of hospitalization, especially in older age groups.8 The evidence relating alcohol to stroke is more extensive in regard to the risk with heavy alcohol consumption than with moderate consumption, but relatively little has been done to investigate the role of light or moderate drinking.
Since stroke accounts for more female deaths (approximately 15%) than male deaths (approximately 10%),9 it is important to analyze the role of alcohol consumption in different types of stroke in women. Several studies have focused on men only, yet there is a tendency to extrapolate the results to women.1 3 4 5
The aim of the present study was to investigate the association, if any, between alcohol habits and stroke mortality (hemorrhagic and ischemic) in men and women. Alcohol habits were defined in terms of (1) average quantity of alcohol intake, ie, grams of pure alcohol per day as estimated from the quantities of alcoholic beverages consumed (beer, wine, liquor); (2) frequency of alcohol intake, ie, on a daily versus not-daily basis; (3) frequency of high-alcohol-consumption episodes; and (4) frequency of "feeling intoxicated."
For this purpose, self-reported alcohol consumption data in a cohort of 15 077 men and women were linked with the national cause-of-death register during a period of 20 years.
| Subjects and Methods |
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Abstainers could thus be categorized into lifelong abstainers and
former drinkers. Those who had answered "Yes" to the question of
whether they had drunk beer/wine/liquor during the preceding year were
asked: "How often do you usually drink beer? Almost every
day/Occasionally in the week/A couple of times a month/A few times in
the year/More rarely/Never" and "How much do you usually drink
when you drink beer? A couple of glasses/1 bottle/2 bottles/3 bottles
or more." The same questions were asked concerning wine and liquor.
The options for the quantities of wine were: A couple of
glasses/
bottle/
to 1 bottle/1 bottle or more. For
liquor they were: Less than 5 cL/5 to 15 cL/15 to 35 cL/More than 35 cL
(5 cL being equivalent to one drink). The average consumption
of grams of pure alcohol per day was estimated from the answers to
these questions. Drinking behavior was further investigated by two
questions: "It happens relatively often that on special occasions
one drinks more than usual. How often do you drink alcohol
corresponding to at least half a bottle of spirits or two bottles of
wine on the same occasion? Occasionally in the week/A couple of times a
month/Occasionally in the month/A few times in the year/More
rarely/Never" and "How often do you feel intoxicated? Often/Now
and then/Rarely/Never." These two variables, "binge
drinking" and "feel intoxicated," were analyzed
separately and in combination.
Smoking habits were also recorded in detail. In the
analysis, smoking status was divided into smoker (1 to 9 or
10 cigarettes per day) and nonsmoker. Nonsmokers were defined as
persons smoking less than 5 to 10 packs of cigarettes, or the
equivalent in cigars or pipe tobacco, during their entire life (1
cigarette=1 g tobacco).
The cohort was followed in the national cause-of-death register from 1968 through 1987. All death certificates of persons registered in Swedish parishes at the time of death were reviewed and recorded at Statistics Sweden. The cause-of-death register is more than 99% complete15 and has a validity of 97% in cases of cerebrovascular diseases.14 During the follow-up, 6886 deaths occurred, of which 769 were attributed to stroke as the underlying or contributory cause of death (cerebrovascular disease, codes 430 through 438 of the International Classification of Diseases, 8th Revision). Hemorrhagic stroke caused 195 deaths, and ischemic stroke caused 574 deaths. Permission to link the two data sets was obtained from the Data Inspection Board and the faculty's Research Ethics Committee for the study.
Statistical Analysis
The relative risk (RR) of mortality (cumulative incidence) was
estimated from a logistic regression analysis with 95%
confidence intervals (CI) with the use of the SAS CATMOD
procedure.16 We included age and smoking in the
multivariate model after testing each variable
separately in relation to alcohol habits in univariate
analyses. Age was used as a continuous variable. Lifelong
alcohol abstainers were used throughout as the reference group.
Ex-drinkers who reported that they had stopped drinking because of
the problems it caused were initially analyzed separately.
Since they were few, particularly among women, and since an
analysis showed no difference between them and former drinkers
who had stopped for other reasons, these two groups were treated
together in the main analyses.
| Results |
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Drinkers Versus Nondrinkers
The risk of dying of stroke was not increased for male consumers
of alcohol as a group compared with lifelong abstainers: overall RR,
1.2; 95% CI, 0.8 to 1.6 (Table 2
). Nor was it high for
female consumers; the latter ran a 30% lower risk of stroke (RR, 0.7;
95% CI, 0.5 to 0.8) than did the female lifelong abstainers (Table 3
). Female ex-drinkers, on the other hand, had more
than triple the risk of ischemic stroke (RR, 3.3; 95% CI, 1.5
to 7.2). Male ex-drinkers had an insignificantly increased
risk.
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Quantity of Alcohol
For men, the quantity of alcohol was not associated with the risk
of stroke (Table 2
). Women had the lowest risk at 0 to 5 g/d; the risk
increased somewhat with a higher intake. However, this
dose-response relation did not reach significance (Table 3
).
Frequency of Alcohol Intake
Table 2
shows that men who drank infrequently (beer, wine, or
liquor a few times a year or more rarely) ran twice the risk of dying
of ischemic stroke than lifelong abstainers (RR, 2.0; 95% CI,
1.3 to 3.2). On the other hand, women who reported infrequent drinking
had a 40% risk reduction in ischemic stroke (RR, 0.6; 95% CI,
0.4 to 0.9); those who drank once a week or once a month had a 30%
risk reduction (RR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.5 to 0.9); and those who drank
almost daily had an RR of 0.8 (95% CI, 0.5 to 1.4; Table 3
).
Frequency of High-Alcohol-Consumption Episodes
Men who reported binge drinking on rare occasions (a few times per
year or more rarely) had an elevated risk of ischemic stroke
(RR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1 to 2.5). Women who reported never binge drinking
had a reduced risk of ischemic stroke (RR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.5 to
0.8).
Frequency of Feeling Intoxicated
Men who reported that they often or sometimes felt intoxicated had
a greater risk of ischemic stroke (RR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.1 to
2.8). Women who never felt intoxicated had a reduced risk of dying of
ischemic stroke (RR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.5 to 0.9).
The patterns were similar when the two variables were combined: men
who reported binge drinking and/or intoxication had an elevated risk of
ischemic stroke, while women who had never experienced such
episodes were less at risk (Table 4
).
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| Discussion |
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For middle-aged and elderly women a different pattern emerged. While ex-drinkers had the highest riskthreefoldof dying of ischemic stroke compared with lifelong abstainers, there was a considerably reduced risk of ischemic stroke in women with the lowest drinking levels. A low drinking level in this case meant, at most, 5 g/d of pure alcohol, which corresponds to two or three glasses of wine a week. Although they merged fatal and nonfatal stroke, Stampfer at al7 in their study of 87 000 female nurses found a similarly decreased risk of ischemic stroke among those drinking moderate amounts of alcohol (1.5 to 14.9 g/d). At the same time, their data suggested that moderate alcohol consumption may increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke among middle-aged women. In our study no association was found regarding hemorrhagic stroke in men or women. However, since ischemic stroke accounted for 75% of all strokes, associations with ischemic stroke also had an effect on the findings for total stroke. This shows the need to analyze different subtypes of stroke separately; otherwise, the effects found may be "diluted" since risk factors such as alcohol may have different relationships with different subtypes of stroke.
Age and smoking were controlled for in the analyses as potential confounders. In contrast to some other studies,3 7 we did not control for hypertension or cardiovascular diseases since, as Beaglehole and Jackson8 point out, if alcohol consumption increases stroke occurrence through alcohol-induced hypertension, controlling for blood pressure in the analyses will obscure the relationship between alcohol and stroke.
Drinking habits were measured by a questionnaire regarding the quantity and frequency of alcohol intake, binge drinking, and subjective feelings of intoxication. The validity of self-reported drinking habits, ie, the extent to which accurate information is provided by the respondent, has often been debated. In reality, however, there is still no better method for investigating this domain of human behavior, which is a good reason for trying to improve questionnaire and interview methods.17 Respondents may overestimate or underestimate the amount drunk, and the amount may also vary over time. Nevertheless, as Doll et al18 point out, studies of alcohol use and subsequent mortality can yield useful results, particularly among people in middle or old age with long-established habits. In our study no validation of the self-reported data was attempted by hematologic or biomedical markers of alcohol intake because such tests were not in use in 1967 to 1968, when the data were compiled for the present follow-up. The autopsy rate was 23%. In Sweden an autopsy is performed on practically all persons who die outside of the hospital to document the cause of death. Analyses of the relationship between alcohol habits and risk of stroke were attempted separately on these cases and showed the same tendencies as for the combination. However, the figures in subgroups were too small for safe conclusions.
The level of alcohol intake in the cohort was generally low; less than 1% reported a consumption of 40 g/d or more, and 20% of the men and 44% of the women drank no alcohol at all at the baseline of the study. This may be due to the fact that the subjects were elderly or because that generation had a more restrictive attitude toward alcohol. More than 20 years ago, this was particularly true of women. Heavy drinkers may also be less willing to answer the questionnaire about lifestyle. However, even if the cohort may not be quite representative of a "normal" population, it can be used for our purpose of investigating the relationship between various amounts of alcohol intake and mortality from stroke.
In the main analyses, we considered persons who consume alcohol occasionally during the year or more rarely as drinkers. We also performed analyses in which we excluded these persons from the consumers. This lowered the stroke risk, although only marginally and without influencing the original trends, for men in the category of 0 to 5 g/d. There is therefore a possibility that men in the cohort who reported rare drinking, binge drinking, and feeling intoxicated were periodic heavy drinkers. These men, whose average amount of alcohol consumed may not be very high when considered per day, had a clearly increased risk of ischemic stroke. According to Hillbom,10 even occasional heavy drinking may increase the risk of stroke. However, although several studies suggest an association between heavy alcohol intake and an increased risk of stroke,1 2 3 4 5 the results thus far are not univocal internationally. For example, in two recent studies, one from Britain and one from Italy, no association was found.19 20
Some studies suggest a possible health-protective effect of light and moderate alcohol use, particularly against ischemic stroke,7 21 but it has also been argued that this may be an effect of the control group, usually nondrinkers, in whom abstention may be associated with other risk factors for disease.22 23 In our analyses, ex-drinkers were separated from lifelong abstainers. Former drinkers, at least the women, in fact had the highest risk of ischemic stroke. Also, in a cohort study of male Japanese physicians in which ex-drinkers were analyzed separately, they appeared to have the highest risk of ischemic stroke.4
In conclusion, in this cohort of light and moderate alcohol drinkers, middle-aged and older men and women had different risk patterns concerning ischemic stroke. We found no associations with hemorrhagic stroke. The results of the analyses are greatly dependent on the composition of the reference group. Therefore, it is important to distinguish between total alcohol abstainers and ex-drinkers since, in this study, female ex-drinkers were found to have an increased mortality risk.
| Acknowledgments |
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Received April 24, 1995; revision received June 29, 1995; accepted July 3, 1995.
| References |
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