posted 03-15-2011 09:04 PM                  

Coronary heart disease and 11-year all-cause mortality were lower with 1 or 2 drinks daily.

In this systematic review and meta-analysis of 84 prospective cohort studies with >1 million participants, investigators assessed the effect of alcohol consumption on cardiovascular (CV) disease–related mortality, incidence of and mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD), and incidence of and mortality from stroke. Mean follow-up was 11 years.

After adjustment for multiple confounders, active drinkers had significantly lower risks for CV disease–related mortality (relative risk, 0.75), incident CHD (RR, 0.71), and CHD-related mortality (RR, 0.75) than did nondrinkers. In contrast, alcohol consumption was not associated with lower risk for incident stroke and stroke-related mortality. In dose-response analyses, the lowest risks for CV disease–related mortality, incident CHD, and CHD-related mortality occurred at an alcohol consumption level of 1 to 2 drinks daily, whereas the lowest risks for incident stroke and stroke-related mortality occurred at 1 drink daily. Finally, in the 31 studies that provided data on all-cause mortality, active drinkers had significantly lower risk for all-cause mortality (RR, 0.87) than did nondrinkers. Insufficient data were available to provide risk estimates for beer, wine, and spirits individually.