ALBUMINURIA IN PEOPLE AT LEAST 40-YEARS-OLD - EFFECT OF ALCOHOL-CONSUMPTION, REGULAR EXERCISE, AND CIGARETTE-SMOKING

We investigated the relation between albuminuria and life-style factor s in 5670 people, ages 40 years and over, who participated in a health screening survey of a local workforce. The degree of albuminuria show ed piecewise log-linear relationships with alcohol consumption and cig arette smoking, with changes in slope (and 95% confidence interval) co rresponding with 5 (2, 8) g of alcohol/day and 10 (6, 14) cigarettes/d ay. After adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, and other life-style v ariables, relative risks (95% confidence interval) of slight albuminur ia for people consuming >32 g of alcohol/day compared with nondrinkers , and for cigarette smokers compared with nonsmokers, were 1.74 (1.02, 2.98) and 1.37 (1.01, 1.88), respectively. However, there was no sign ificant effect of exercise. We conclude that slight albuminuria is sig nificantly associated with cigarette smoking and heavy alcohol consump tion, consistent with its role as an index of risk of cardiovascular d isease.