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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.
Baliunas et al. (Thu,) studied this question.