The relationship of smoking and alcohol consumption to blood pressure and lipid concentrations in male elderly living in Seoul, Korea / 대한내과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: It is known that the effects of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption on cardiovascular disease are very diverse. We investigated the effects of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption on cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension and dyslipidemia in male elderly living in Seoul, Korea. METHODS: We examined the relationship of smoking and alcohol consumption to cardiovascular risk factors in 236 Korean men aged over 60 years in the community-based cross-sectional study from August 1999 to October 1999. RESULTS: Alcohol users had higher systolic blood pressure, HDL cholesterol and lower LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol compared with non-users. After adjustment with age, body mass index and amount of smoking, partial correlation analysis showed that amount of alcohol consumption positively correlated with systolic blood pressure (r=0.1479, p<0.05) and negatively correlated with LDL cholesterol (r=0.2704, p<0.01) and total cholesterol (r=0.1800, p<0.05). But smokers didn't show any difference of body mass index, blood pressure, and lipid profile compared with non-smokers. CONCLUSION: In Korean male elderly, alcohol consumption was associated with increased systolic blood pressure. Also alcohol consumption was confirmed to be associated with decreased LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol, which might have a protective effect on coronary heart disease. We couldn't find the correlation between blood pressure, lipid profile and cigarette smoking.