ArticleBMC medicine2016
Twenty-year trajectories of alcohol consumption during midlife and atherosclerotic thickening in early old age: findings from two British population cohort studies.
Article in BMC medicine, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association of longitudinal alcohol consumption trajectories with coronary heart disease: a meta-analysis of six cohort studies using individual participant data.BMC medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Association between clinically recorded alcohol consumption and initial presentation of 12 cardiovascular diseases: population based cohort study using linked health records.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2017Trial
- Link between alcohol consumption and myocardial infarction, stroke, and all-cause mortality among Swedish male automotive workers over 30 years.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Alcohol, Liver Disease, and Peripheral Arterial Disease: Epidemiology, Mechanisms, and Clinical Implications.Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology · 2025Review
- Association between alcohol consumption and carotid atherosclerosis in Russia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Prevalence and associated risk factors of carotid plaque and artery stenosis in China: a population-based study.Frontiers of medicine · 2025Article
- Alcohol consumption may be a risk factor for cerebrovascular stenosis in acute ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack.BMC neurology · 2024Article
- Associations of alcohol intake with subclinical carotid atherosclerosis in 22,000 Chinese adults.Atherosclerosis · 2023Article
- Predictors of beverage-specific, alcohol consumption trajectories: A Swedish population-based cohort study.Nordisk alkohol- & narkotikatidskrift : NAT · 2023Article
- Sex-specific risk factors of carotid atherosclerosis progression in a high-risk population of cardiovascular disease.Clinical cardiology · 2023Article
- Association between Lifetime Tobacco Use and Alcohol Consumption Trajectories and Cardiovascular and Chronic Respiratory Diseases among Older People.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Lifetime employment, tobacco use, and alcohol consumption trajectories and cardiovascular diseases in old age.SSM - population health · 2021Article
- Sustained heavy drinking over 25 years is associated with increased N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptides in early old age: Population-based cohort study.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2020Observational
- The association between alcohol consumption and sleep disorders among older people in the general population.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Alcohol consumption trajectories and self-rated health: findings from the Stockholm Public Health Cohort.BMJ open · 2019Article
- Classical Cardiovascular Risk Factors and HIV are Associated With Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Adults From Sub-Saharan Africa: Findings From H3Africa AWI-Gen Study.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2019Article
- Eighteen-year alcohol consumption trajectories and their association with risk of type 2 diabetes and its related factors: the China Health and Nutrition Survey.Diabetologia · 2019Article
- The Future of Research on Alcohol-Related Disparities Across U.S. Racial/Ethnic Groups: A Plan of Attack.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2018Article
- The impact of long-term moderate and heavy alcohol consumption on incident atherosclerosis among persons living with HIV.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEpidemiological evidence indicates a protective effect of light-moderate drinking on cardiovascular disease and an increased risk for heavier drinking. Nevertheless, the effect of alcohol on atherosclerotic changes in vessel walls is disputed. Most previous studies have only looked at the cross-sectional relationship between alcohol and carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) - a surrogate marker of atherosclerosis. Single measurements of alcohol assume that alcohol exposure is stable and ignore the possible cumulative effects of harm, leading to possibly incorrect inferences.
methodsData were retrieved from two UK population based cohort studies: the Whitehall II cohort of civil servants and the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (combined sample size of 5403 men and women). Twenty year-drinking trajectories during midlife were linked to measures of cIMT when participants were in early old age, and adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic position, ethnicity and smoking.
resultsThose who consistently drank heavily had an increased cIMT compared to stable moderate drinkers (pooled difference in cIMT 0.021 mm; 95 % CI 0.002 to 0.039), after adjustment for covariates. This was not detected in cross-sectional analyses. Former drinkers also had an increased cIMT compared to moderate drinkers (pooled difference in cIMT 0.021; 95 % CI 0.005 to 0.037). There were no appreciable differences in cIMT between non-drinkers and consistent moderate drinkers.
conclusionThe drinking habits among adults during midlife affect the atherosclerotic process and sustained heavy drinking is associated with an increased cIMT compared to stable moderate drinkers. This finding was not seen when only using cross-sectional analyses, thus highlighting the importance of taking a life course approach. There was no evidence of a favourable atherosclerotic profile from stable moderate drinking compared to stable non-drinking.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.