Drinking patterns and risk of ischemic stroke in middle-aged adults: Do beneficial drinking habits indeed exist?

Although it has been reported that the amount of alcohol consumption has a J-shaped association with ischemic stroke, it is unclear whether differences in drinking patterns affect this relationship. A study aimed to clarify the impact of drinking patterns on ischemic stroke in midlife.
Data was taken from the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort, which is a large-sized, standardised population cohort in Korea. Five different drinking patterns were defined by combining the frequency of alcohol consumption and quantity of alcohol consumed per occasion, that is, abstainers, not drinking alcohol; drinker group I, ≤30 g/d and <5 d/wk; drinker group II, ≤30 g/d and ≥5 d/wk; drinker group III, >30 g/d and <5 d/wk; and drinker group IV, >30 g/d and ≥5 d/wk. The association between the drinking patterns and ischemic stroke occurrence was analysed using the Cox proportional hazard model.
A total of 152 469 middle-aged participants (mean age, 50.2 years; 72 285 men [47.4%]) were eligible for the analyses. The median follow-up time was 9.0 years.
Compared with abstainers, those who drank <5 d/wk (drinker groups I and III) had a significantly lower risk of ischemic stroke (group I hazard ratio, 0.71 [95% CI, 0.59-0.85]; group III hazard ratio, 0.80 [95% CI, 0.68-0.93]) during the first 7 years from the baseline, while other drinker groups showed no such differences. However, the effect of drinking patterns on ischemic stroke risk was attenuated after the first 7 years.
Reduced risk of ischemic stroke was observed in middle-aged participants with specific drinking patterns, but the researchers suggest it was limited to the earlier period of 7 years follow up and less so for the final 2 years.
Source: Yang W, Kang DW, Ha SY, Lee SH. Drinking Patterns and Risk of Ischemic Stroke in Middle-Aged Adults: Do Beneficial Drinking Habits Indeed Exist? Stroke. 2020 Nov 5:STROKEAHA120032144.