Abstract
Background
Whilst high levels of alcohol consumption are known to be associated with atrial fibrillation
(AF), it is unclear if any level of alcohol consumption can be recommended to prevent
the onset of the condition. The aim of this review is to characterise the association
between chronic alcohol intake and incident AF.
Methods and results
Electronic literature searches were undertaken using PubMed and Embase databases up
to 1 February 2016 to identify studies examining the impact of alcohol on the risk
of incident AF. Prospective studies reporting on at least three levels of alcohol
intake and published in English were eligible for inclusion. Studies of a retrospective
or case control design were excluded. The primary study outcome was development of
incident AF. Consistent with previous studies, high levels of alcohol intake were
associated with an increased incident AF risk (HR 1.34, 95% CI 1.20–1.49, p < 0.001). Moderate levels of alcohol intake were associated with a heightened AF risk
in males (HR 1.26, 95% CI 1.04–1.54, p = 0.02) but not females (HR 1.03, 95% CI 0.86–1.25, p = 0.74). Low alcohol intake, of up to 1 standard drink (SD) per day, was not associated
with AF development (HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.85–1.06, p = 0.37).
Conclusions
Low levels of alcohol intake are not associated with the development of AF. Gender
differences exist in the association between moderate alcohol intake and AF with males
demonstrating greater increases in risk, whilst high alcohol intake is associated
with a heightened AF risk across both genders.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to International Journal of CardiologyAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Impact of atrial fibrillation on the risk of death: the Framingham Heart Study.Circulation. 1998; 98: 946-952
- Worldwide epidemiology of atrial fibrillation: a global burden of disease 2010 study.Circulation. 2014; 129: 837-847
- The increasing burden of atrial fibrillation compared with heart failure and myocardial infarction: a 15-year study of all hospitalizations in Australia.Arch. Intern. Med. 2012; 172: 739-741
- Trends of hospitalization for atrial fibrillation in the United States, 2000 through 2010: implications for healthcare planning.Circulation. 2014; 129: 2371-2379
- Alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease, cancer, injury, admission to hospital, and mortality: a prospective cohort study.Lancet. 2015; 386: 1945-1954
- Arrhythmias and the “holiday heart”: Alcoholassociated cardiac rhythm disorders.Am. Heart J. 1978; 95: 555-562
- Alcohol consumption and risk of atrial fibrillation: a meta-analysis.J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2011; 57: 427-436
- Alcohol consumption and risk of atrial fibrillation: a prospective study and dose-response meta-analysis.J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2014; 64: 281-289
- Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology: a proposal for reporting.JAMA. 2000; 283: 2008-2012
- Assessing bias in studies of prognostic factors.Ann. Intern. Med. 2013; 158: 280-286
- Alcohol and risk of atrial fibrillation or flutter: a cohort study.Arch. Intern. Med. 2004; 164: 1993-1998
- Heavy alcohol consumption increases the risk of atrial fibrillation-circulatory risk in communities study(CIRCS).Circulation. 2013; 127
- Alcohol effect on incident atrial fibrillation in individuals with cardiovascular disease: analysis of data from the ONTARGET and TRANSCEND studies.Circulation. 2011; 124
- Alcohol consumption and incidence of atrial fibrillation and heart failure: prospective findings from the MOLI-SANI study.Eur. J. Prev. Cardiol. 2015; 22: S179
- Alcohol consumption and the risk of incident atrial fibrillation among people with cardiovascular disease.CMAJ. 2012; 184 (E857-E66)
- Alcohol consumption and risk of atrial fibrillation in men and women: the Copenhagen City Heart Study.Circulation. 2005; 112: 1736-1742
- Alcohol consumption and risk of incident atrial fibrillation in women.JAMA. 2008; 300: 2489-2496
- Dietary factors and incident atrial fibrillation: the Framingham Heart Study.Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2011; 93: 261-266
- Alcohol consumption and risk of atrial fibrillation.Eur. Heart J. 2009; 30: 817
- Alcohol consumption and risk of atrial fibrillation: observational and genetic estimates of association.Eur. J. Prev. Cardiol. 2016; 23: 1514-1523
- Holiday heart syndrome revisited after 34 years.Arq. Bras. Cardiol. 2013; 101: 183-189
- Alcohol intake is significantly associated with atrial flutter in patients under 60 years of age and a shorter right atrial effective refractory period.Pacing Clin. Electrophysiol. 2008; 31: 266-272
- Alcohol and vagal tone as triggers for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.Am. J. Cardiol. 2012; 110: 364-368
- Dose-related effects of red wine and alcohol on hemodynamics, sympathetic nerve activity, and arterial diameter.Am. J. Phys. Heart Circ. Phys. 2008; 294: H605-H612
- Alcohol consumption, sinus tachycardia, and cardiac arrhythmias at the Munich Octoberfest: results from the Munich Beer Related Electrocardiogram Workup Study (MunichBREW).Eur. Heart J. 2017; https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehx156
- Alcohol consumption, left atrial diameter, and atrial fibrillation.J. Am. Heart Assoc. 2016; 5
- Alcohol and hypertension: gender differences in dose–response relationships determined through systematic review and meta-analysis.Addiction. 2009; 104: 1981-1990
- Aggressive risk factor reduction study for atrial fibrillation and implications for the outcome of ablation: the ARREST-AF cohort study.J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2014; 64: 2222-2231
- Long-term effect of goal-directed weight management in an atrial fibrillation cohort: a long-term follow-up study (LEGACY).J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2015; 65: 2159-2169
- Alcohol consumption and risk and prognosis of atrial fibrillation among older adults: the cardiovascular health study.Am. Heart J. 2007; 153: 260-266
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
May 29,
2017
Received in revised form:
May 24,
2017
Received:
March 14,
2017
Footnotes
☆Previous Presentation: Presented at the Annual Scientific Sessions of the Heart Rhythm Society, San Francisco (May 2016) and published in abstract form in Heart Rhythm 2016;13:S353-S354
Identification
Copyright
Crown Copyright © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
ScienceDirect
Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
- Comment on “Alcohol and incident atrial fibrillation—A systematic review and meta-analysis”International Journal of CardiologyVol. 257
- PreviewWe have read with interests a recently published meta-analysis by Gallagher C et al. [1] entitled “Alcohol and incident atrial fibrillation – A systematic review and meta-analysis”. This work contributes a novel knowledge to the area regarding the role of levels of alchol intake and risk of AF. However, there are some methodological issues which might be interests of readers.
- Full-Text
- Preview
