Associations between alcohol consumption and body fat distribution in type 1 diabetes

To evaluate the associations between alcohol consumption and body fat distribution in type 1 diabetes (T1D).

DXA assessed the body composition of 548 adults with T1D from the Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy Study. Visceral fat mass (VFM) ≥ 0.7% of body weight for women and ≥ 1.1% for men defined central obesity (CO), whereas body fat mass (BFM) ≥ 40.4% for women and ≥ 31.8% for men defined general obesity (GO). Alcohol consumption data were collected via questionnaires. One standard dose = 12 g of pure alcohol. Participants were classified as abstainers, low-risk, moderate-risk and high-risk alcohol consumers. We used linear and logistic regression models for analyses.

The higher the alcohol consumption the higher the VFM% (r² = 0.23, β = 0.083, p = 0.04) in both sexes. BFM% presented a similar pattern in men (r² = 0.12, β = 0.160, p = 0.01), but not in women. One weekly dose increase of alcohol consumption increases the odds of CO by 3% (OR 1.03, p = 0.037), but not GO. The odds of CO (OR 7.3, p = 0.003) and GO (OR 5.3, p = 0.007) increase with high-risk, but not with low- and moderate-risk consumptions.

In adults with T1D, alcohol consumption is linearly associated with VFM% regardless of sex, whereas the association with BFM% is sex-dependent.