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Epidemiology

Alcoholic beverage preference and diabetes incidence across Europe: the Consortium on Health and Ageing Network of Cohorts in Europe and the United States (CHANCES) project

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 71, pages 659–668 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

It is unknown if wine, beer and spirit intake lead to a similar association with diabetes. We studied the association between alcoholic beverage preference and type 2 diabetes incidence in persons who reported to consume alcohol.

Subjects/Methods:

Ten European cohort studies from the Consortium on Health and Ageing: Network of Cohorts in Europe and the United States were included, comprising participant data of 62 458 adults who reported alcohol consumption at baseline. Diabetes incidence was based on documented and/or self-reported diagnosis during follow-up. Preference was defined when ⩾70% of total alcohol consumed was either beer, wine or spirits. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were computed using Cox proportional hazard regression. Single-cohort HRs were pooled by random-effects meta-analysis.

Results:

Beer, wine or spirit preference was not related to diabetes risk compared with having no preference. The pooled HRs were HR 1.06 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93, 1.20) for beer, HR 0.99 (95% CI 0.88, 1.11) for wine, and HR 1.19 (95% CI 0.97, 1.46) for spirit preference. Absolute wine intake, adjusted for total alcohol, was associated with a lower diabetes risk: pooled HR per 6 g/day was 0.96 (95% CI 0.93, 0.99). A spirit preference was related to a higher diabetes risk in those with a higher body mass index, in men and women separately, but not after excluding persons with prevalent diseases.

Conclusions:

This large individual-level meta-analysis among persons who reported alcohol consumption revealed that the preference for beer, wine, and spirits was similarly associated with diabetes incidence compared with having no preference.

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Acknowledgements

The research of DS was supported by the Dutch Beer Institute and the European Foundation for Alcohol Research (ERAB). The sponsor did not have any role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review or approval of the manuscript. No other authors declare conflicts of interest. This analysis was part of the Consortium on Health and Ageing (CHANCES) project funded in the FP7 framework programme of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation in the European Commission (grant 242244). The CHANCES project is coordinated by the Hellenic Health Foundation, Greece. Harmonization of the data from the MORGAM cohorts was also supported by European Union FP 7 project BiomarCaRE (278913). DS, FK and EJMF designed the study and formulated the research question. OHF, DK, AT, TW, HB, KK, TL, SS, LI and PB acquired the data and contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools. DS carried out the study, analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content and approved of the final version to be published. The research of DS was supported by the Dutch Beer Institute and the European Foundation for Alcohol Research (ERAB). The sponsor did not have any role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review or approval of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    D Sluik, N Jankovic, D Kromhout & E J M Feskens

  2. Centre of Clinical Epidemiology, Institute for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

    N Jankovic

  3. UKCRC Centre of Excellence for Public Health, School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland

    M Hughes, M G O'Doherty & F Kee

  4. Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

    B Schöttker, J M Ordóñez-Mena & H Brenner

  5. Institute of Health Care and Social Sciences, FOM University, Essen, Germany

    B Schöttker

  6. Department of Epidemiology, CVD Prevention and Health Promotion, Institute of Cardiology, Warsaw, Poland

    W Drygas

  7. Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Family Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    O Rolandsson & S Eriksson

  8. Department of Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Helsinki, Finland

    S Männistö, K Kuulasmaa & T Laatikainen

  9. Network of Aging Research (NAR), Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    J M Ordóñez-Mena & H Brenner

  10. Nuffield Department of Primary Care and Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    J M Ordóñez-Mena

  11. Department of Cardiology, Toulouse University School of Medicine, Toulouse, France

    J Ferrieres

  12. Hellenic Health Foundation, Athens, Greece

    C Bamia, A Trichopoulou & P Boffetta

  13. Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece

    C Bamia

  14. Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed, Pozzilli, Italy

    G de Gaetano & L Iacoviello

  15. Global Public Health, Leiden University College, The Hague, The Netherlands

    J C Kiefte-De Jong

  16. Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    J C Kiefte-De Jong & O H Franco

  17. Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    I Sluijs

  18. National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands

    A M W Spijkerman

  19. Catalan Department of Health, Barcelona, Spain

    S Sans

  20. Department of Hygiene, WHO Collaborating Center for Nutrition and Health, Unit of Nutritional Epidemiology and Nutrition in Public Health, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece

    A Trichopoulou

  21. Department of Community Medicine, UiT the Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

    T Wilsgaard

  22. Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    T Laatikainen

  23. Hospital District of North Karelia, Finland

    T Laatikainen

  24. Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Cardiology and Heart Centre, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    S Söderberg

  25. Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    P Boffetta

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  1. D Sluik
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  28. F Kee
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Correspondence to D Sluik.

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Sluik, D., Jankovic, N., Hughes, M. et al. Alcoholic beverage preference and diabetes incidence across Europe: the Consortium on Health and Ageing Network of Cohorts in Europe and the United States (CHANCES) project. Eur J Clin Nutr 71, 659–668 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2017.4

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