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Meta-Analysis
. 2009 Nov;32(11):2123-32.
doi: 10.2337/dc09-0227.

Alcohol as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Dolly O Baliunas  1 , Benjamin J Taylor, Hyacinth Irving, Michael Roerecke, Jayadeep Patra, Satya Mohapatra, Jürgen Rehm
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Alcohol as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Dolly O Baliunas et al. Diabetes Care. 2009 Nov.

Abstract

Objective: To clarify the dose-response relationship between alcohol consumption and type 2 diabetes.

Research design and methods: A systematic computer-assisted and hand search was conducted to identify relevant articles with longitudinal design and quantitative measurement of alcohol consumption. Adjustment was made for the sick-quitter effect. We used fractional polynomials in a meta-regression to determine the dose-response relationships by sex and end point using lifetime abstainers as the reference group.

Results: The search revealed 20 cohort studies that met our inclusion criteria. A U-shaped relationship was found for both sexes. Compared with lifetime abstainers, the relative risk (RR) for type 2 diabetes among men was most protective when consuming 22 g/day alcohol (RR 0.87 [95% CI 0.76-1.00]) and became deleterious at just over 60 g/day alcohol (1.01 [0.71-1.44]). Among women, consumption of 24 g/day alcohol was most protective (0.60 [0.52-0.69]) and became deleterious at about 50 g/day alcohol (1.02 [0.83-1.26]).

Conclusions: Our analysis confirms previous research findings that moderate alcohol consumption is protective for type 2 diabetes in men and women.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of literature search for the relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Scatter plot of the RR estimates of type 2 diabetes reported in the 20 studies included in the analyses. Each study provides more than one RR estimate. The area of each circle is proportional to the precision of the RR estimate.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Pooled and fitted RR estimates and 95% CI band. A: The highest single alcohol consumption measure for women was 52.35 g/day, thus x-axis is scaled to 60 g/day. B: Among men, the single highest alcohol consumption measure was 80.04 g/day.
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