The Conflict Between Public Health Goals and the Temperance Mentality - Relationship between Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) and Alcohol Consumption

Written by Stanton Peele

Page 4 of 6

Table 2. Prospective Studies Finding an Inverse Relationship between Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) and Alcohol Consumption, 1986-1992.


Study and Population	No. Drinks Consumed/Day^a	Adjusted Risk Relative to Abstainers
Klatsky et al.²³ 85,001 Black, White and Hispanic Kaiser-Permanente enrollees of both sexes		(CAD) hospitalization)
	<1	.65
	=<2	.55
	=<5	.54
	=<8	.52
	=>9	.47
Stampfer et al.¹⁹ 87,526 female nurses aged 34-59 years		(Severe CHD Incidence)
	<1 per week	.8
	<2	.6
	=>2	.4
Rimm et al.²² 51,529 male health professionals aged 40-75 years		(CAD incidence)
	<1	.79
	1	.68
	=<2	.73
	=<4	.57
	>4	.41
Suh et al.²¹ 11,688 men at risk for CAD, average age 46 years		(CHD mortality^b)
	=<1	.76
	=<2	.84
	=<3	.59
	>3	.63
Note CHD = Coronary heart disease, the term used by Stampfer et al.¹⁹ and Suh et al.²¹ ^a Consumption was converted from grams for Stampfer et al.¹⁹ and Rimm et al.²¹ by the formula 25 g = 2 drinks. ^b "The adjusted relative risk for death from CHD for each increase of seven drinks per week was .89, with an apparent dose-response relationship."

Table 3. Relative Risk of Death from Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), All Cardiovascular Disease, and All Causes


No Drinks Consumed	RR CAD Total Sample	RR CAD Those at CAD Risk	RR CAD No CAD Risk	RR CAD Women	RR CAD age 60 or over	RR All Cardio-vascular	RR All Causes
1/month	.8	.8	.7	.4	.5	.8	.9
1-2/day	.7	.8	.6	.7	.5	.7	.9
3-5/day	.6	.5	.6	.2	.4	.8	1.0
6/day or more	.8	.9	.6	.6	.5	1.0	1.4
Note These figures are from the 1990 Kaiser Study of 123,840 adults; they represent the relative risk (RR) of death compared with lifelong abstainers in each category, adjusted for age, sex, race, smoking, body mass, marital status, and education. Source: Reprinted with permission from Klatsky et al.^20tbls2,4 Copyright 1990 American Journal of Cardiology.