ROLE OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES IN ESSENTIAL HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS

To evaluate the importance of alcohol and other environmental factors in essential hypertensives, we conducted a cross-sectional study on 62 7 patients (322 women, 305 men) subdivided in four subgroups according to sex and presence or absence of drug therapy, to evaluate differenc es due to drugs and changes in life style. Multiple regression analyse s were run where systolic and diastolic blood pressures were considere d as separate dependent variables with the following independent varia bles: age, body mass index, physical activity, alcohol and coffee cons umption, smoking, educational Level; considered as continuous or categ orical variables. Eighty-eight per cent of all patients showed a moder ate-low alcohol intake (1-50 g/day); wine was the preferred beverage. We found a negative independent relationship between mild/moderate alc ohol consumption levels and systolic blood pressure in untreated men a nd untreated women, and no relationship between alcohol and diastolic blood pressure in all subgroups considered. Body mass index and age we re positively associated with both systolic and diastolic blood pressu re. Our data suggest that mild to moderate alcohol consumption does no t affect blood pressure control in either treated or untreated hyperte nsive patients.