• Susanna C Larsson, Alice Wallin, Alicja Wolk, and Hugh S Markus.
• Unit of Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, SE-17177, Stockholm, Sweden. susanna.larsson@ki.se.
• Bmc Med. 2016 Nov 24; 14 (1): 178.

BackgroundWhether light-to-moderate alcohol consumption is protective against stroke, and whether any association differs by stroke type, is controversial. We conducted a meta-analysis to summarize the evidence from prospective studies on alcohol drinking and stroke types.MethodsStudies were identified by searching PubMed to September 1, 2016, and reference lists of retrieved articles. Additional data from 73,587 Swedish adults in two prospective studies were included. Study-specific results were combined in a random-effects model.ResultsThe meta-analysis included 27 prospective studies with data on ischemic stroke (25 studies), intracerebral hemorrhage (11 studies), and/or subarachnoid hemorrhage (11 studies). Light and moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a lower risk of ischemic stroke, whereas high and heavy drinking was associated with an increased risk; the overall RRs were 0.90 (95 % CI, 0.85-0.95) for less than 1 drink/day, 0.92 (95 % CI, 0.87-0.97) for 1-2 drinks/day, 1.08 (95 % CI, 1.01-1.15) for more than 2-4 drinks/day, and 1.14 (95 % CI, 1.02-1.28) for more than 4 drinks/day. Light and moderate alcohol drinking was not associated with any hemorrhagic stroke subtype. High alcohol consumption (>2-4 drinks/day) was associated with a non-significant increased risk of both hemorrhagic stroke subtypes, and the relative risk for heavy drinking (>4 drinks/day) were 1.67 (95 % CI, 1.25-2.23) for intracerebral hemorrhage and 1.82 (95 % CI, 1.18-2.82) for subarachnoid hemorrhage.ConclusionLight and moderate alcohol consumption was inversely associated only with ischemic stroke, whereas heavy drinking was associated with increased risk of all stroke types with a stronger association for hemorrhagic strokes.

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