Alcohol intake and bradyarrhythmia risk

There is a paucity of epidemiological evidence on alcohol and the risk of bradyarrhythmias. A study characterised associations of total and beverage-specific alcohol consumption with incident bradyarrhythmias using data from the UK Biobank.
Alcohol consumption reported at baseline was calculated as UK standard drinks (8 g alcohol)/week. Bradyarrhythmia events were defined as sinus node dysfunction (SND), high-level atrioventricular block (AVB), and permanent pacemaker implantations. Outcomes were assessed through hospitalisation and death records, and dose-response associations were analysed.
407,948 middle-aged individuals (52.4% female) were included in the study. Over a median follow-up time of 11.5 years, a total of 8,344 incident bradyarrhythmia events occurred. Increasing total alcohol consumption was not associated with an increased risk of bradyarrhythmias. Beer and cider intake were associated with increased bradyarrhythmia risk up to 12 drinks/week; however, no significant associations were observed with red wine, white wine, or spirit intake. When bradyarrhythmia out-comes were analysed separately, a negative curvilinear was observed for total alcohol consumption and risk of SND, but no clear association with AVB was observed.
In this predominantly White British cohort, increasing total alcohol consumption was not associated with an increased risk of bradyarrhythmias. Associations appeared to vary according to the type of alcoholic beverage and between different types of bradyarrhythmias. Further epidemiological and experimental studies are required to clarify these findings the authors say.
Source: Tu SJ, Gallagher C, Elliott AD, Linz D, Pitman BM, Hendriks JML, Lau DH, Sanders P, Wong CX. Al-cohol intake and bradyarrhythmia risk: a cohort study of 407 948 individuals. Europace. 2022 Oct 13;24(9):1469-1474.