Inverse association between excessive alcohol drinking and cardiometabolically healthy status in middle-aged men with and without overweight and obesity

Abstract

AimsThe aim of this study was to clarify the relationship between drinking and metabolically healthy status in men with normal weight, overweight and obesity. MethodsThe subjects were Japanese men aged from 35 to 60 years (n=31781) and they were divided by daily amount of drinking (g ethanol) into light (< 22), moderate (≥22 and <44), heavy (≥44 and <66) and very heavy (≥66) drinkers. Metabolically healthy subjects were defined as those without hypertension, dyslipidemia and diabetes. ResultsThe percentage of metabolically healthy subjects was much lower in the overweight (BMI≥25 and <30) and obese (BMI≥30) groups than in the normal weight group (BMI≥18.5 and <25) and was much lower in the obese group than in the overweight group. In each of the normal weight and overweight groups, percentages of metabolically healthy subjects were significantly lower in heavy and very heavy drinkers than in nondrinkers and were marginally significantly higher in light drinkers than in nondrinkers. The above associations between drinking and metabolically healthy status were confirmed by logistic regression analysis. In the obese group, the percentage of metabolically healthy subjects was significantly lower in regular drinkers (including all drinker categories) than in nondrinkers, and metabolically healthy subjects were rare (0.56%) among regular drinkers. ConclusionsRegardless of absence and presence of overweight or obesity, excessive alcohol drinking is inversely associated with metabolically healthy status and should be avoided for prevention of cardiovascular disease.