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Alcohol drinking patterns and the risk of fatty liver in Japanese men

  • Original Article—Liver, Pancreas, and Biliary Tract
  • Published:
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Abstract

Background

Alcohol is considered to be a major cause of fatty liver (FL). In contrast, however, recent investigations have suggested that moderate alcohol consumption is protective against FL. To clarify the role of alcohol consumption in FL development, we examined the association between drinking patterns and FL prevalence.

Methods

We enrolled 9,886 male participants at regular medical health checks. Each subject’s history of alcohol consumption was determined by questionnaire. The subjects were classified according to alcohol consumption as non-, light, moderate, and heavy drinkers (0, <20, 20–59, and ≥60 g/day, respectively). FL was defined by ultrasonography. Independent predictors of FL were determined by logistic regression analysis.

Results

The prevalence of FL displayed a “U-shaped curve” across the categories of daily alcohol consumption (non-, 44.7%; light, 39.3%; moderate, 35.9%; heavy drinkers, 40.1%; P < 0.001). The prevalence of FL was associated positively with body mass index and other obesity-related diseases and inversely with alcohol consumption (light, odds ratio [OR] 0.71, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.59–0.86; moderate, OR 0.55, CI 0.45–0.67; heavy, OR 0.44, CI 0.32–0.62) as determined by multivariate analysis after adjusting for potential confounding variables. In addition, examination of drinking patterns (frequency and volume) revealed that the prevalence of FL was inversely associated with the frequency of alcohol consumption (≥21 days/month) (OR 0.62, CI 0.53–0.71) but not with the volume of alcohol consumed.

Conclusions

Our observations suggest that alcohol consumption plays a protective role against FL in men, and consistent alcohol consumption may contribute to this favorable effect.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by grants-in-aid from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Kagoshima Kouseiren Hospital, Kagoshima, Japan

    Yasunari Hiramine, Yasushi Imamura & Kaori Hosoyamada

  2. Department of Digestive and Life-Style Related Disease, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, 8-35-1 Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima, 890-8520, Japan

    Yasunari Hiramine, Hirofumi Uto, Makoto Oketani, Akio Ido & Hirohito Tsubouchi

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima, Japan

    Chihaya Koriyama

  4. Department of Environmental Medicine, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima, Japan

    Masahisa Horiuchi

  5. Kagoshima Kouseiren Medical Health Care Center, Kagoshima, Japan

    Ken Kusano

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  1. Yasunari Hiramine
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  2. Yasushi Imamura
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Correspondence to Hirofumi Uto.

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Hiramine, Y., Imamura, Y., Uto, H. et al. Alcohol drinking patterns and the risk of fatty liver in Japanese men. J Gastroenterol 46, 519–528 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00535-010-0336-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00535-010-0336-z

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