Moderate drinking is good for heart, if you're rich!

Rich people who enjoy moderate drinking less likely to die from heart disease

People who enjoy a few cocktails each week may be less likely to die from heart disease than people who rarely or never drink, especially if they’re rich, a Norwegian study suggests.

For the study, researchers examined survey data on drinking habits and demographic characteristics for 207,394 adults in Norway. During an average follow-up of 17 years, 8,435 participants died of cardiovascular disease.

Compared to the participants who drank less than once a month, moderate drinkers who enjoyed alcoholic beverages two to three times a week were 22 per cent less likely to die of heart disease during the study, researchers report in PLoS Medicine.

But money also mattered. Among the most affluent people, moderate drinkers were 34 per cent less likely to die from heart disease. Among the poorest participants in the study, the odds of death for moderate drinkers were just 21 per cent lower than for non-drinkers.

“We knew that the risk of alcohol-related hospitalisations and deaths was higher among less affluent individuals on average, despite that they in general drink less frequently,” said lead author Eirik Degerud of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo.

“We now see that that the proposed benefit of alcohol on the risk of cardiovascular disease is more pronounced among those more affluent,” Degerud said by email. “But as there is no good reason why, mechanistically, alcohol should be more 'protective’ among those with an affluent background, we suspect that it is their affluent background that is the real reason behind the difference.”

Being poor also appeared to worsen the risks of heavy drinking. Among the least affluent participants, individuals who had four to seven cocktails a week were 42 per cent more likely to die from heart disease. Heavy drinkers were also 70 per cent more likely to die of a stroke and 49 per cent more likely to die from any cause.

Frequent binge drinking was also associated with a higher risk of death from heart disease, but it wasn’t clear whether social class influenced these odds.
 

Researchers used just one measurement to reflect lifetime drinking habits, even though alcohol consumption might change over time.