Association between alcohol consumption and peripheral artery disease

The association between alcohol consumption and risk of peripheral artery disease (PAD) is inconclusive. Researchers examined the association between alcohol consumption and PAD risk in two de novo cohort studies and a meta-analysis of observational studies.
A systematic review was conducted to identify studies on alcohol consumption in relation to PAD risk. Researchers also used data from two cohorts of 70,116 Swedish and 405,406 British adults and performed a meta-analysis of results from previously published studies and current cohort studies. There was a U-shaped association between alcohol consumption and incident PAD risk in the Swedish and British cohorts. The meta-analysis of results of these two cohorts and previously published studies found that compared with non- or never-drinkers, the relative risk of PAD was 0.83 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.77-0.89), 0.81 (95% CI 0.74-0.90), and 0.94 (95% CI 0.83-1.07) for light, moderate, and high-to-heavy alcohol drinkers, respectively. The nonlinear meta-analysis revealed a possibly U-shaped association between alcohol consumption and PAD risk. The risk of PAD was observed to be the lowest for 2 drinks/week and to be pronounced for ≥10 drinks/week.
Alcohol intake ≤ 2 drinks/week was associated with a reduced risk of PAD and the risk of PAD became pronounced with intake ≥10 drinkers/week, the study found.
Source: Yuan S, Wu J, Chen J, Sun Y, Burgess S, Li X, Åkesson A, Larsson SC. Association between alcohol consumption and peripheral artery disease: Two de novo prospective cohorts and a systematic review with meta-analysis. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2024 Apr 16:zwae142.