Article Text
Abstract
Background: In observational studies, mainly from Western Caucasian populations, moderate alcohol use has been shown to be associated with a lower risk of diabetes. However, whether the protection is due to the attributes of alcohol or to those of moderate alcohol users is difficult to disentangle. A population with a different distribution of alcohol consumption and diabetes prevalence from Western populations was studied as a counterfactual comparison.
Methods: Baseline data from the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study phases 1 and 2 (2003–6) were used to examine the adjusted associations, using multivariable censored linear regression, of alcohol use with fasting blood glucose in older (⩾50 years) men (n = 5740) and women (n = 14 274) from southern China. Moderate alcohol use was defined as weekly drinking of ⩽210 g alcohol in men and ⩽140 g in women. The expected associations of alcohol with high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and blood pressure were also checked.
Results: Moderate alcohol users had very similar fasting glucose levels to never users, adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, smoking and physical activity. In contrast, moderate alcohol users had higher HDL-cholesterol by 0.05 mmol/litre (95% CI 0.02 to 0.07). Excessive (more than moderate) alcohol users had higher fasting glucose.
Conclusions: In an understudied population with a different pattern of alcohol use from the populations usually studied, the biologically expected effects of moderate alcohol use were seen, but there was little effect on fasting glucose. Although cross-sectional studies cannot be conclusive, this pattern of findings, if confirmed, suggests that moderate alcohol use may not affect fasting glucose, although excessive use may be a risk factor.
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Footnotes
Funding: The study was funded by the University of Hong Kong Foundation for Development and Research, and the University of Hong Kong University Research Committee Strategic Research Theme Public Health, Hong Kong; Guangzhou Public Health Bureau, and Guangzhou Science and Technology Bureau, Guangzhou, China; and the University of Birmingham, UK. The funding sources had no role in any of the following: study design; the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; the writing of the report; and the decision to submit the paper for publication.
Competing interests: None.
Ethics approval: The Guangzhou Medical Ethics Committee of the Chinese Medical Association approved the study and all participants gave written, informed consent before participation.