Abstract

This paper presents the results of an analysis of dietary alcohol use and blood pressure in representative population samples from four northern California cities surveyed in 1979-1980 as part of the Stanford Five City Project. The pooled samples included 883 men and 959 women aged 20-74 who were not taking blood pressure medications. Blood pressure was obtained while seated using a standard manometer. Alcohol was assessed by self-report of usual intake. In men, age-specific analysis revealed a positive association between dietary alcohol and both systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). The association was linear in men aged 20-34 and 50-74 and was stronger in the oldest men. Both linear and quadratic terms were significant for men aged 35-49. This association remained significant in a linear regression model that included age, relative weight, income, education, physical activity, cigarette use, and untimed urinary sodium/creatinine; for alcohol in ml/day in men aged 50-74, beta = 0.21, p = 0.0001, R2 = 0.32 for SBP; beta = 0.09, p = 0.0002, R2 = 0.18 for DBP. In women, alcohol use was significantly associated with blood pressure only in those above age 49 and was more striking in those not taking estrogens; this association was also independent of the same variables listed above for men (beta = 0.43, p = 0.0001, R2 = 0.23 for SBP; beta = 0.17, p = 0.001, R2 = 0.13 for DBP). Multiple logistic analyses with hypertension as a dichotomous dependent variable and including all subjects showed similar results. These results could be due to any one or more of the following hypotheses: 1) a biologic response to alcohol in older men and in older women that is different from the response in younger persons; 2) a delayed effect of alcohol use on blood pressure; 3) effects of a different pattern of alcohol use in the different age groups; or 4) the presence of some unmeasured confounding factor in the older age groups.

View details for Web of Science ID A1983RL60900006

View details for PubMedID 6637977