Abstract P316: Alcohol Consumption and Incidence of Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure: Prospective Findings From the MOLI-SANI Study

Abstract

Introduction: The connection between ethanol intake and atrial fibrillation (AF) or heart failure (HF) remains controversial. Hypothesis: We assessed the hypothesis that alcohol consumption predicts onset of AF or HF. Methods: We analyzed 22,420 (47% men, age≥35) AF or HF-free individuals randomly recruited from the general population included in the MOLI-SANI study, for whom complete data on HF, AF and alcohol were available. The cohort was followed for a median of 4.2 years (91,930 person-years). Alcohol intake was categorized in former, never, occasional (<1 gr/day) drinkers and in four categories of consumers with different intake (Table). Incident cases were identified through linkage to the regional archive of hospital discharges. The end of follow-up was 31/12/2011. Hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox-proportional hazard models (Table). Results: We identified 546 incident cases of HF and 352 of AF. In comparison with never drinkers, both former or occasional drinkers showed an equal risk of developing HF (Table). Drinking at various amount of alcohol revealed a J-shaped protection against HF, with a 25% (95%CI: 1% to 44%) maximum protection at 2-4 drinks a day, independent from common confounders (Table). Concerning AF, we failed to observe any association of alcohol with onset of it. Very similar results were obtained after restriction of the analyses to only men/women or to type of alcoholic beverages (wine, beer or liquor). Conclusions: Consumption of alcohol in moderation prevent the incidence of heart failure of 25%, whereas it was not associated with development of atrial fibrillation.