Intake of alcohol and risk of adult-onset asthma

Lieberoth, Sofie
Backer, Vibeke
Kyvik, Kirsten Ohm
Skadhauge, Lars Rauff
Tolstrup, Janne Schurmann
Grønbæk, Morten
Linneberg, Allan
Thomsen, Simon Francis

Open link

Publication date

February 2012

DOI

10.1016/j.rmed.2011.11.004

Publisher

Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract

SummaryAimTo examine the association between intake of alcohol and risk of adult-onset asthma.MethodsUsing data from two multidisciplinary questionnaire surveys we prospectively studied 19,349 twins, 12–41 years of age, from the nationwide Danish Twin Registry.ResultsThe eight-year incidence of asthma was 4.3%. After adjustment for sex, age, BMI, physical activity, educational level and smoking, the risk of new-onset asthma was significantly related to overall alcohol intake in a U-shaped manner with the lowest risk observed in the group with a moderate weekly intake of alcohol (1–6 units/week), p = 0.006. The highest risk of asthma was observed in rare/never drinkers (<1 unit/month), OR = 1.59 (1.25–2.02), p = 0.000, whereas the risk of as...