SMOKING, ALCOHOL AND THE RISK OF DUPUYTRENS CONTRACTURE

We investigated the association of Dupuytren's contracture with smokin g and with alcohol by a case-control study in which 222 patients havin g an operation for this condition were matched for age, operation date and gender with control patients having other orthopaedic operations. Fifty of the cases were also each matched with four community control s. Data were collected by postal questionnaire. Dupuytren's contractur e needing operation was strongly associated with current cigarette smo king (adjusted odds ratio 2.8 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5 to 5.2 )), The mean lifetime cigarette consumption was 16.7 pack-years for th e cases compared with 12.0 pack-years for the controls (p = 0.016), Du puytren's contracture was also associated with an Alcohol Use Disorder s Test score greater than 7 (adjusted odds ratio 1.9 (95% CI 1.02 to 3 .57)), Mean weekly alcohol consumption was 7.3 units for cases and 5.4 units for controls (p = 0.016). The excess risk associated with alcoh ol did not appear to be due to a confounding effect of smoking, or vic e versa. Smoking increases the risk of developing Dupuytren's contract ure and may contribute to its prevalence in alcoholics, who tend to sm oke heavily.