Alcohol Consumption and the Coronary Heart Disease-Related Risk Factors in Korean Adults: the Third Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES III), 2005

ABSTRACT

Moderate alcohol consumption has been known to be associated with reduced risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). We assessed the association between alcohol consumption and CHD-related risk factors [hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM), high total cholesterol, high triglyceride (TG), low HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), and high LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C)] in Korean. After excluding those with extreme intake values, the number of final subjects included in the analysis was 4,662 Korean adults aged over 20 years (1,961 men, 2,701 women) who participate in the 2005 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The subjects were divided into four or five groups; none-alcohol consumption group, moderate alcohol consumption group ( or = 70 g/d in men, > or = 30 g/d in women). Odds ratios (ORs) were estimated from logistic regression adjusting for potential covariates. Alcohol consumption was inversely associated with low HDL-C in both men and women. However, heavy alcohol intake (> or = 70 g/d) significantly increased risk for hypertension, DM, and hypertriglyceridemia in men. The frequency of alcohol intake was also associated with CHD risk. The risk for low HDLC was decreased with alcohol consumption (> or = 1 times/wk), but frequent alcohol intake (> or = 4 times/wk) increased the risk for hypertension. This study revealed that moderate alcohol consumption has protective effect on CHD-related risk factors in Korean population.