Patterns of alcohol consumption in middle-aged men from France and Northern Ireland. The PRIME Study

Abstract

Objective: To assess the patterns of alcohol consumption in France and Northern Ireland. Design: Four cross-sectional studies. Setting: Sample of 50 ± 59 y old men living in France and Northern Ireland, consuming at least one unit of alcoholic beverage per week. Subjects: 5363 subjects from France and 1367 from Northern Ireland. Interventions: None. Results: Consumption of wine was higher in France whereas consumption of beer and spirits was higher in Northern Ireland. Alcohol drinking was rather homogeneous throughout the week in France, whereas Fridays and Saturdays accounted for 60% of total alcohol consumption in Northern Ireland. In both countries, current smokers had a higher consumption of all types of alcoholic beverages than non-smokers. Similarly, obese and hypertensive subjects had a higher total alcohol consumption than non-obese or normotensive subjects, but the type of alcoholic beverages differed between countries. In Northern Ireland, subjects which reported some physical activity consumed signi®cantly less alcoholic beverages than sedentary subjects, whereas no differences were found in France. Conversely, subjects with dyslipidemia consumed more alcoholic beverages than

Relationships between alcoholic beverages and cardiovascular risk factor levels in middle-aged men, the PRIME study

“…This was because the drinking pattern as well as the relative amounts of each type of alcoholic beverage consumed differed greatly between the two countries. Alcohol consumption was evenly distributed throughout the week with only a slight increase at weekends in France, whereas Fridays and Saturdays accounted for two thirds of total alcohol consumption in Northern Ireland [45]. Also, wine was the predominant alcoholic beverage in France, whereas beer was the predominant beverage in Northern Ireland.…”

“…Again, the reasons for this difference are not straightforward. Although a direct effect of wine on HDL parameters cannot be excluded, it has been shown that Northern Irish subjects who drink wine have a better life-style than subjects who drink other types of alcoholic beverages [45]. For instance, Northern Irish subjects who drink mainly wine have their lunch more frequently at home and use low fat spreads more frequently (52 vs. 39%, PB 0.01) than subjects who drink mainly beer or spirits, who in turn more frequently use butter.…”

Alcoholic beverage preference and dietary pattern in Spanish university graduates: the SUN cohort study

“…In a Danish study wine drinkers tended to have a higher intake of fruits, fish, vegetables, salads and to be more likely to use olive oil for cooking (Tjønneland et al, 1999). Nevertheless, in the aforementioned countries wine is an expensive alcoholic beverage which is bought by individuals belonging to higher socioeconomic levels who are more likely to have healthier dietary practices (Marques-Vidal et al, 2000;Mortensen et al, 2001;Barefoot et al, 2002;McCann et al, 2003;Nielsen et al, 2004;Ruidavets et al, 2004).…”

Association of hypertensive status and its drug treatment with lipid and haemostatic factors in middle-aged men: the PRIME Study

“…Multivariate analysis was performed using the general linear models (Proc GLM) of SAS. Since alcohol drinking patterns and the type of hypolipidaemic drug prescription differ between France and Northern Ireland 15 and that those variables might affect lipid and lipoprotein values, 16 the interactions country*alcohol drinking and country*hypolipidaemic drug were introduced in the multivariate model. Due to the number of tests performed, statistical significance was considered for P Ͻ 0.01, except for Dunnett's test, for which statistical significance was considered for P Ͻ 0.05.…”