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Journal article

Associations of alcohol intake with subclinical carotid atherosclerosis in 22,000 Chinese adults

Abstract:

Background and aims
We investigated the causal relevance of alcohol intake with measures of carotid artery thickness and atherosclerosis in Chinese adults.

Methods
The study included 22,384 adults from the China Kadoorie Biobank, with self-reported alcohol use at baseline and resurvey, carotid artery ultrasound measurements, and genotyping data for ALDH2-rs671 and ADH1B-rs1229984. Associations of carotid intima media thickness (cIMT), any carotid plaque, and total plaque burden (derived from plaque number and size) with self-reported (conventional analyses) and genotype-predicted mean alcohol intake (Mendelian randomisation) were assessed using linear and logistic regression models.

Results
Overall 34.2% men and 2.1% women drank alcohol regularly at baseline. Mean cIMT was 0.70 mm in men and 0.64 mm in women, with 39.1% and 26.5% having carotid plaque, respectively. Among men, cIMT was not associated with self-reported or genotype-predicted mean alcohol intake. The risk of plaque increased significantly with self-reported intake among current drinkers (odds ratio 1.42 [95% CI 1.14–1.76] per 280 g/week), with directionally consistent findings with genotype-predicted mean intake (1.21 [0.99–1.49]). Higher alcohol intake was significantly associated with higher carotid plaque burden in both conventional (0.19 [0.10–0.28] mm higher per 280 g/week) and genetic analyses (0.09 [0.02–0.17]). Genetic findings in women suggested the association of genotype-predicted alcohol with carotid plaque burden in men was likely to due to alcohol itself, rather than pleiotropic genotypic effects.

Conclusion
Higher alcohol intake was associated with a higher carotid plaque burden, but not with cIMT, providing support for a potential causal association of alcohol intake with carotid atherosclerosis.

Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2023.06.012

Authors


More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MSD
Department:
Nuffield Department of Population Health
Role:
Author
More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MSD
Department:
Nuffield Department of Population Health
Role:
Author
More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MSD
Department:
Nuffield Department of Population Health
Role:
Author
More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MSD
Department:
Nuffield Department of Population Health
Role:
Author

Contributors


More from this funder
Grant:
104085/Z/14/Z
212946/Z/18/Z
088158/Z/09/Z
202922/Z/16/Z


Publisher:
Elsevier
Journal:
Atherosclerosis More from this journal
Volume:
377
Pages:
34-42
Publication date:
2023-06-15
Acceptance date:
2023-06-09
DOI:
ISSN:
0021-9150


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
1400498
Local pid:
pubs:1400498
Deposit date:
2023-06-15

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