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Association between blood pressure and lifetime drinking patterns in moderate drinkers
1Research Institute on Addictions, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA.
Objective:
To compare the relationship between blood pressure and recent vs lifetime alcohol intake measures in a nonalcoholic cohort using measures that normalized alcohol intake in terms of the volume of distribution for ethanol (total body water) for each subject.
Method:
Correlations between blood pressure and alcohol intake measures were determined in a cohort of 84 (48 male) normotensive moderate drinkers, using multiple linear regressions to correct for the influence of potentially confounding variables.
Results:
Significant correlations were observed between systolic pressure and measures of both recent and lifetime alcohol consumption in men. Diastolic pressure was found to be significantly associated only with the duration of lifetime drinking, and only in women. Measures of lifetime total dose were not significantly correlated with either systolic or diastolic pressure. Alcohol intake expressed in terms of the number of "drinks" per drinking day was as highly associated with blood pressure (systolic) in men as were measures that normalized alcohol intake in terms of the body water content of each subject. A measure of the mean number of drinks consumed on drinking occasions over the drinking career produced the highest correlations with systolic pressure.
Conclusions:
Measures of both recent and lifetime alcohol intake may be relevant to the understanding of alcohol-blood pressure relationships.