Association between Alcohol Consumption and Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular Disease
1

Introduction:
It is evident that association between the alcohol consumption and development of
cardiovascular disease is complex and controversial. Previously numerous systematic reviews
and meta-analysis were published to establish association between the alcohol consumption
and development of cardiovascular disease. Most of the studies established that non-drinking
population exhibited better cardiovascular health profile as compared to the alcohol drinking
people. Moreover, these studies also established grading like moderate and severe
cardiovascular diseases based on the amount of alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption
at the moderate and high level produced moderate and high risk of morbidity and mortality
due to cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular diseases are complex diseases comprising of
different phenotypes. However, most of the studies put efforts to establish association
between the alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease development. Very few studies,
were carried to out to establish association between the cardiovascular diseases with different
phenotypes and alcohol consumption. However, some of the studies has not been completed
yet. Moreover, some electronic database revealed that there is heterogenous association
between the alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease development. It indicates there
can be robust association between the alcohol consumption and different phenotypes of the
cardiovascular diseases (Bell, Kivimäki, and Batty, 2015). Hence, this study was undertaken
with large pool of data to establish association between the alcohol consumption and
cardiovascular disease.
In this research, multiple research articles were used which have significant importance to
understand the background of the study, to establish objectives of the study and address the
questions which remain unanswered in the previous studies. Previously published article on
the current research topic would be helpful in improving information related to research
topic, filling the research gap, opening up questions which were not addressed previously,
identifying requirement of further research and placing the current research in the context of
existing literature. Articles which report association between the alcohol consumption and
cardiovascular diseases are important in this research because these articles are helpful in
addressing the research question (Mukamal and Rimm, 2008; Roerecke and Rehm, 2012;
Roerecke and Rehm, 2014). Previous article can be also be useful for identifying themes for
further literature search and determining the robust end point for incorporation in the
research. Existing articles can also be useful in the identification of accurate key words. This
study was developed based on the literature search. Identification of key words is most
2

significant aspect in this study for further research. Existing articles proved helpful in
comparing and contrasting existing research, which helped in developing objective of the
current research. Previous research articles helped in sharpening the research focus (Movva
and Figueredo, 2013; O’Keefe, Bybee, and Lavie, 2007; Brien, Ronksley, Turner et al., 2011;
Mathews, Liebenberg, and Mathews, 2015).
Previously published articles were used as basis for this study because these articles provided
following information : information related to the risk and benefits of alcohol consumption in
cardiovascular patients, relationship of drinking pattern and amount of alcohol with
cardiovascular diseases, association of alcohol consumption with the selective and non-
selective cardiovascular diseases, effect of alcohol consumption on the biological markers of
the cardiovascular diseases, mechanisms of alcohol consumption for the development of
cardiovascular diseases and effect of alcohol consumption of cardiovascular disease burden.
Information collected from the previously published articles is useful in deciding various
measures for this study. These measures includes : selection of 12 cardiovascular diseases
with different phenotypes, selection of patients with different drinking pattern, differentiation
of patients based on quantity of alcohol consumption and categorising of patients as current
drinkers, previous drinkers, chronic and occasional drinkers (Fernández-Solà, 2015;
Mukamal and Rimm, 2008; Roerecke and Rehm, 2012; Roerecke and Rehm, 2014; Ronksley,
Brien, Turner et al., 2011).
This study was based on the results of previous research. Previous research provided
background for developing clinical research question. Previous research was associated with
certain limitations. These limitations include whether it is necessary to consider current
drinkers, previous drinkers and moderate drinkers. In most of the studies, it was not clarified
whether reported results were due to consideration of specific type of drinkers or combination
of the different types of drinkers. There is possibility of overestimation of prevalence of
cardiovascular disease, if previous drinkers and current drinkers are merged together.
Though, previous drinkers develop cardiovascular disease; its phenotype would be definitely
different from the phenotype of the cardiovascular disease developed due to current alcohol
drinking. Moreover, in previous studies it has been established that onset of the
cardiovascular condition is associated with the reduced or stopped consumption of the
alcohol. Hence, non-drinkers can be considered are at risk of cardiovascular conditions
development. Moreover, previous studies established that moderate alcohol consumption can
prevent certain cardiovascular diseases. Hence, these studies underestimated association
3