1. ¹Department of Epidemiology, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
2. ²Cardiovascular Institute and Fuwai Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, and Chinese National Center for Cardiovascular Disease Control and Research, Beijing, China
3. ³Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
4. ⁴Zhejiang Provincial Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Research, Zhejiang, China
5. ⁵Department of Biostatistics, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
6. ⁶Fujian Provincial People's Hospital, Fujian, China
7. ⁷The Sichuan Provincial Center of Disease Control and Prevention, Sichuan, China

Correspondence: K Reynolds, Research and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, 100 S. Los Robles, 2nd Floor, Pasadena, California 91101, USA. E-mail: kristi.reynolds@kp.org; D Gu, Division of Population Genetics and Prevention, Cardiovascular Institute and Fuwai Hospital, No. 167 Beilishi Road, Beijing 100037, PR China. E-mail: gudf@yahoo.com

Received 25 April 2007; Revised 20 September 2007; Accepted 24 October 2007; Published online 9 January 2008.

Abstract

We examined the relationship between alcohol consumption and incidence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in a prospective cohort of 65 601 Chinese men aged 40 years and older. Information on the amount and type of alcohol consumed was collected at a baseline examination with follow-up evaluations conducted 8–9 years later. During the 500 876 person-years of follow-up, 176 participants initiated renal replacement therapy or died from renal failure. Compared to non-drinkers, the relative risk of ESRD was 0.67 among men consuming less than 21 drinks per week and 0.52 among men consuming this amount or more after adjustment for age, geographic region, urbanization, education, body mass index, physical activity, and cigarette smoking. The inverse association between alcohol consumption and ESRD existed even after adjustment for systolic blood pressure, and history of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Our results suggest an inverse relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of ESRD in Chinese men. Heavy alcohol consumption, however, may lead to increased risk of morbidity and mortality from other causes; therefore, the implications from these findings should be interpreted cautiously.