Background: An inverse association between moderate alcohol consumption and coronary heart disease (CHD) has been observed in several epidemiological studies. To assess whether a similar association exists among diabetics, we examined the relation between light to moderate alcohol consumption and CHD in men with and without diabetes mellitus in a prospective cohort study.
Methods and results: A total of 87 938 US physicians (2790 with diagnosed diabetes mellitus) who were invited to participate in the Physicians' Health Study and were free of myocardial infarction, stroke, cancer, or liver disease at baseline were followed for an average of 5.5 years for death with CHD as the underlying cause. During 480 876 person-years of follow-up, 850 deaths caused by CHD were documented: 717 deaths among nondiabetic men and 133 deaths among diabetic men. Among men without diabetes at baseline, the relative risk estimates for those reporting rarely/never, monthly, weekly, and daily alcohol consumption were 1.00 (referent), 1.02, 0. 82, and 0.61 (95% CI 0.49 to 0.78; P for trend <0.0001) after adjustment for age, aspirin use, smoking, physical activity, body mass index, and history of angina, hypertension, and high cholesterol. Among men with diabetes at baseline, the relative risk estimates were 1.00 (referent), 1.11, 0.67, and 0.42 (95% CI 0.23 to 0.77; P for trend=0.0019).
Conclusions: These results suggest that light to moderate alcohol consumption is associated with similar risk reductions in CHD among diabetic and nondiabetic men.