Heart doi:10.1136/heartjnl-2013-30403

Alcohol intake and prognosis of atrial fibrillation patients

Published Online First 13 June 2013

Abstract

Objective To assess alcohol intake as a risk factor for adverse events among patients with incident atrial fibrillation (AF).

Setting :Population based cohort study and nationwide Danish registries.

Patients
The Danish Diet, Cancer and Health study included 57?053 participants (27?178 men and 29?875 women) aged between 50 and 64?years. The study population for this study included the 3107 participants (1999 men, 1108 women) who developed incident AF after inclusion.

Main outcome measures : A composite of thromboembolism or death.

Results During a median follow-up of 4.9?years 608 deaths and 211 thromboembolic events occurred.
Of those who developed AF, 690 (35%) men and 233 (21%) women had a high intake of alcohol (>20 drinks/week for men and >13 drinks/week for women).
After adjustment for use of oral anticoagulation and components of the CHA2DS2-VASc score, men with an intake of >27 drinks/week had a higher risk for thromboembolism or death (hazard ratio (HR) 1.33, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.63) than men with an intake of <14 drinks/week.

Women with an intake of >20 drinks/week also had a higher risk (HR 1.23, 95% CI 0.78 to 1.96) than women in the low intake category.

Conclusions
High alcohol intake predicts thromboembolism or death, even after adjustment for established clinical risk factors, and may help identify high risk AF patients who could be targeted for stroke and cardiovascular prevention strategies.

G Mohan.