Abstract P033: Alcohol and Incident Heart Failure among the Cohort of Swedish Men

Background: The relationship between alcohol intake and incident heart failure (HF) is complex. Compared with no alcohol consumption, heavy alcohol intake is associated with higher HF risk whereas light or moderate consumption may be associated with lower risk. Methods: We analyzed 34,581 men 45-79 years old with no history of HF, diabetes mellitus or myocardial infarction (MI) who were participants in the population-based Cohort of Swedish Men study. We excluded former drinkers. At baseline, participants reported how frequently they consumed specific alcoholic beverages in the past year and other characteristics. HF was defined as hospitalization for or death from HF (primary diagnosis), ascertained by Swedish inpatient and cause-of-death records from January 1, 1998 to December 31, 2011. Due to missing values for two covariates, we used Markov chain Monte Carlo multiple imputation to simulate 5 complete datasets. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals, adjusting for age, total energy intake, education, body mass index, physical activity, a dietary component score, cigarette smoking, marital status, family history of MI before age 60, history of hypertension and history of high cholesterol. Results: At baseline, mean age was 58.6 years. There were 1592 incident cases of HF over the follow-up period. Compared with never drinkers, the multivariable-adjusted rate of HF was 19% lower among men who drank <1 drink per week (rate ratio: 0.81, 95% confidence interval: 0.64, 1.04%). The multivariable-adjusted HF rate was similar among men who drank <1 drink per week and men who drank ≥1 drink per week. Conclusions: Light-to-moderate drinking is associated with lower rate of HF compared with never drinking, but the association was not statistically significant.