Martino Martinelli-Filho et al. Caio Vitale Spaggiari Roberta Vanalli Baroni Cinthya Ibrahim Guirao Gomes … Thiago Ovanessian Hueb Sergio Augusto Mezzalira Martins Anísio Alexandre Andrade Pedrosa Silvana Angelina Dório Nishioka Sergio Freitas de Siqueira
Abstract
Background
Moderate alcohol intake appears to have a protective cardiovascular effect, whereas harmful alcohol consumption (HAC) is associated with a high rate of chronic diseases and mortality. The amount of alcohol intake has been associated with lifestyle behaviors; however, this relationship has not been assessed in patients with heart disease (HD).
Objective
To evaluate the association between lifestyle behavior and HAC in HD patients.
Methods
This is an observational study that included one group of patients with HD and one group of volunteers designed to assess the association of HAC with lifestyle behavior using a score of lifestyle behavior (the LBS score). We assessed alcohol consumption using the AUDIT-C test. LBS was developed by assigning 1 point to each variable – smoking; overweight or obese (body mass index ≥24.9); anxiety; depression and lack of physical activity, and classified into healthy (0/1 point), regular (2/3 points), or unhealthy (4/5 points). Statistical analysis adopted as a significance level p-value <0.05.
Results
The study included 1,999 patients with HD and 2,081 volunteers. Regression analysis controlled for age and sex, revealed that regular and unhealthy LBS are independent predictors of HAC (OR= 1.35, p=0.04 and OR= 1.76, p=0.001, respectively) in HD patients, similar as volunteers. Good discrimination capability of the regression model was reported in the temporal validation (ROC 0.80). Furthermore, LBS improvements were associated with HAC reductions (p=0.02).
Conclusions
This study showed that risk assessment for HAC using a new lifestyle score is a reliable predictor in HD patients. Also, it was observed that improving lifestyle behavior may help to reduce HAC.