Interaction of current alcohol consumption and abdominal obesity on hypertension risk

The high prevalence of alcohol consumption and abdominal obesity and increased incidence of essential hypertension (EH) in China indicates that there may be an interaction between alcohol consumption and abdominal obesity on EH risk. Therefore, we aimed to examine the independent and combined effects of alcohol consumption and abdominal obesity on risk of EH in a Chinese cohort. We analyzed data from a population-based prospective cohort of 2778 participants aged 35-74 years from Jiangsu China who were free of hypertension, diabetes and CVD at enrollment and were followed for hypertension events. Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) of hypertension and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). Logistic regression model was used to examine the interaction between alcohol consumption and abdominal obesity on risk of hypertension. After adjusting for age, sex, smoking status, family history of hypertension, current alcohol consumption significantly increased EH risk. Compared with those without alcohol consumption, the hazard ratio of EH for participants with alcohol consumption was 1.65 (95% confidence interval 1.29-2.12). There was a statistically significant additive interaction between current alcohol consumption and abdominal obesity on EH risk. The risk of EH for current alcohol consumers with abdominal obesity was 4.49 times as high as the sum of risks in participants with a single condition alone. Both alcohol consumption and abdominal obesity are strong risk factors of EH in the Chinese population. Moreover, this study further demonstrates an additive interaction of alcohol consumption and abdominal obesity on EH risk.