Moderate Alcohol Consumption Lowers the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
A meta-analysis of prospective observational studies
Article Figures & Tables
Figures
- Figure 1—
Scatterplot of the RR estimates of type 2 diabetes reported in the 15 included studies, and the pooled RR estimates with corresponding 95% CIs for five alcohol consumption categories with the nonconsumers as reference category. Each study provides more than one RR estimate. The area of each circle is proportional to the precision of the RR estimate (inverse of its variance).
Tables
- Table 1—
Characteristics of the included studies
Reference Study name, country Population Age range at baseline (years) Sex No. at risk with follow-up No. of incident cases of diabetes Follow-up (years) Diabetes definition Confounders adjusted for Lee et al. (34) Iowa Women’s Health Study, U.S. Population based 55–69 Women 35,698 1,921 9.3 Baseline and four follow-up self reports None Sawada et al. (33) Tokyo Gas Company Study, Japan Employees of one company 20–40 Men 4,745 280 13.6 Annual testing 1–6 Carlsson et al. (32) Finnish Twin Cohort, Finland Population based ≥18 Men and women 10,856 and 11,664 277 and 297 20.0 Record linkage with national hospital and drug registers 1 and 3 Lee et al. (27) GGT-study, Korea Employees of one company 25–55 Men 4,055 83 4.0 Annual testing None Nakanishi, Suzuki, and Tatara (28) Building Company Study, Japan Office workers of one company 35–59 Men 2,953 370 7.0 Annual testing* 1–4 and 7 Wannamethee et al. (8) Nurses’ Health Study 2, U.S. Nurses 25–42 Women 109,705 935 10.0 Biennial self-report 1–4 and 7–11 de Vegt et al. (25) Hoorn Study, the Netherlands Population based 50–75 Men and women 1,322 131 7.6 Baseline and follow-up testing 1 and 12 Meisinger et al. (28) MONICA, Germany Population based 35–74 Men and women 3,052 and 3,114 128 and 85 7.6 Baseline and follow-up self-report 1, 4, and 13 Wannamethee et al. (31) British Regional Heart Study, U.K. General practitioners’ register 40–59 Men 5,221 198 16.8 Baseline and follow-up self-report 1, 2, 4, 7, 14, and 15 Conigrave et al. (24) Health Professionals Follow-up Study, U.S. Health professionals 40–75 Men 46,892 1,571 12.0 Biennial self-report 1–4, 7, 9, 10, and 15–22 Hu et al. (26) Nurses’ Health Study, U.S. Nurses 30–55 Women 82,393 3,296 16.0 Biennial self-report 1, 3, and 23–25 Kao et al. (7) ARIC Study, U.S. Population based 45–64 Men and women 5,423 and 6,838 547 and 569 6.0 Baseline and follow-up testing 1–4, 7, 9, 20, and 26–28 Ajani et al. (22) Physicians’ Health Study, U.S. Physicians 40–85 Men 20,951 666 12.1 Baseline and follow-up self-report 1–3, 7, 9, and 10 Wei et al. (23) Cooper Clinic Study, U.S. Population based 30–79 Men 8,633 149 6.0 Baseline and follow-up testing 1, 3, and 29 Tsumura et al. (30) Osaka Health Survey, Japan Employees of one company 35–61 Men 6,362 456 9.7 Biennial testing 1–4, 7, and 30 - *
↵* Impaired fasting glucose also included in diabetes definition. 1, age; 2, smoking; 3, family history of diabetes; 4, BMI; 5, blood pressure; 6, fitness; 7, physical activity; 8, oral contraceptive use; 9, hypertension; 10, hypercholesterolemia; 11, infertility; 12, sex; 13, survey; 14, social class; 15, preexisting coronary heart disease; 16, dietary glycemic load; 17, fiber; 18, trans fat; 19, polyunsaturated fat; 20, energy intake; 21, profession; 22, cancer; 23, time; 24, menopausal status; 25, hormone therapy; 26, waist-to-hip ratio; 27, race; 28, education; 29, years of follow-up; 30, fasting plasma glucose.
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- Table 2—
RR (95% CI) of type 2 diabetes for alcohol consumption categories for all data, crude and adjusted data, diabetes definition tested and self-reported, men and women, and low and high BMI, with two-sided P values for differences between subgroups
Number of studies Alcohol consumption categories (g/day) 0 (ref.) <6 6–12 12–24 24–48 >48 All data 15 1 0.87 (0.79–0.95) 0.70 (0.61–0.79) 0.69 (0.58–0.81) 0.72 (0.62–0.84) 1.04 (0.84–1.29) Crude 10 (w) 1 0.70 (0.59–0.83) 0.59 (0.40–0.89) 0.50 (0.36–0.69) 0.71 (0.59–0.85) 0.98 (0.78–1.23) Adjusted 10 (w) 1 0.88 (0.80–0.95) 0.73 (0.62–0.86) 0.66 (0.59–0.75) 0.74 (0.63–0.88) 0.93 (0.74–1.18) P 0.04 0.36 0.12 0.75 0.77 Type 2 diabetes tested 7 (b) 1 0.91 (0.79–1.05) 0.89 (0.72–1.10) 0.86 (0.64–1.15) 0.76 (0.63–0.93) 1.14 (0.89–1.45) Type 2 diabetes self-reported 7 (b) 1 0.85 (0.75–0.97) 0.65 (0.57–0.73) 0.57 (0.50–0.65) 0.59 (0.49–0.71) 0.88 (0.55–1.39) P 0.51 0.04 0.03 0.10 0.36 Men 11 (w and b) 1 0.93 (0.82–1.04) 0.80 (0.71–0.90) 0.75 (0.60–0.95) 0.71 (0.60–0.83) 1.06 (0.86–1.32) Women 6 (w and b) 1 0.81 (0.75–0.88) 0.59 (0.54–0.64) 0.55 (0.47–0.65) 0.78 (0.49–1.23)* P 0.14 0.01 0.21 BMI lowest strata 6 (w) 1 0.76 (0.65–0.88) 0.64 (0.44–0.92) 0.73 (0.53–1.01) 0.85 (0.49–1.46) 1.28 (0.37–4.40) BMI highest strata 6 (w) 1 0.85 (0.79–0.92) 0.75 (0.63–0.90) 0.67 (0.57–0.78) 0.71 (0.55–0.91) 0.92 (0.73–1.16) P 0.53 0.45 0.53 0.79 0.65 - *
↵* The single observation in women in the >48-g/day category is pooled with the observations in the 24- to 48-g/day category. w, within-study comparison; b, between-study comparison.
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