Alcohol consumption is associated with a decreased risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia

While some studies have indicated that alcohol consumption is associated with a decreased risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia, others have not. We evaluated associations of alcohol consumption with benign prostatic hyperplasia and male lower urinary tract symptoms.

We performed a meta-analysis of published studies pertaining to alcohol intake, benign prostatic hyperplasia and lower urinary tract symptoms. We analyzed abstracted data with random effects models to obtain pooled odds ratios of adjusted effects estimates.

A total of 19 studies (120,091 men) met selection criteria and of these studies 14 revealed a significantly decreased likelihood of benign prostatic hyperplasia or lower urinary tract symptoms with increased alcohol intake. Sixteen studies were eligible for pooled analyses, of which 12 used benign prostatic hyperplasia as the primary outcome. We stratified total alcohol intake by gm per day into 6 strata. Alcohol intake was associated with a significantly or marginally significantly decreased likelihood of benign prostatic hyperplasia in all 6 strata (p values 0.08, 0.01, <0.001, 0.02, 0.001 and <0.001, respectively). Compared to no alcohol intake, an alcohol intake of 36 gm daily or greater was associated with a 35% decreased likelihood of benign prostatic hyperplasia (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.58-0.74, p <0.001). Of the 4 studies that used lower urinary tract symptoms as the primary outcome 3 demonstrated a significantly increased likelihood of lower urinary tract symptoms with alcohol consumption.

Alcohol consumption is associated with a decreased likelihood of benign prostatic hyperplasia but not of lower urinary tract symptoms. Further studies are needed to determine the mechanisms by which alcohol modifies the risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia.