Relationships between alcoholic beverages and cardiovascular risk factor levels in middle-aged men, the PRIME study

The relationships between alcoholic beverages and cardiovascular risk facto rs were assessed in 6730 men living in France or Northern Ireland. In Franc e, all alcoholic beverages were significantly correlated with body mass ind ex (BMI), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), high density l ipoprotein (HDL) parameters, PAI-1 and Factor VII, whereas only wine was ne gatively related with fibrinogen levels. After adjusting for center, age, B MI, educational level, smoking and marital status, wine had a lesser effect on blood pressure, triglyceride, apo B and LpE:B levels than beer. Wine wa s associated with lower fibrinogen levels and beer with higher PAI-1 activi ty levels independent of the amount of alcohol consumed. In Northern Irelan d, wine was negatively correlated with BMI, triglycerides, LpE:B and fibrin ogen, whereas beer was positively correlated with SBP and DBP, triglyceride s, HDL, apoprotein A-I and fibrinogen. Multivariate analysis showed wine to be positively associated with HDL parameters, and negatively with fibrinog en levels. Wine was also associated with higher LpA-I levels and lower fibr inogen levels independent of the amount of alcohol consumed. We conclude th at alcohol consumption is related to lipid, lipoprotein and haemostatic var iables, but the magnitude of the relationships depends on the type of alcoh olic beverage. Also, some effects might be related to non-alcoholic compone nts. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.