Moderate Alcohol Consumption Lowers the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

This meta-analysis was undertaken to obtain insight regarding the shape and strength of the relationship between alcohol consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes, the effects of adjustment for confounders, and the effect of modification by type 2 diabetes definition, sex, and BMI. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: The 15 original prospective cohort studies that were included comprise 11,959 incident cases of type 2 diabetes in 369,862 individuals who, on average, were followed for 12 years.

After pooling the data, a U-shaped relationship was found. Compared with nonconsumers, the relative risk (RR) for type 2 diabetes in those who consumed /=48 g/day) was equal to that in nonconsumers (1.04 [0.84-1.29]). In general, nonsignificant trends for larger RR reduction associated with moderate alcohol consumption were observed for women compared with men, for crude compared with multivariate-adjusted analyses, and for studies that used self-reports instead of testing for type 2 diabetes definition. No differences in RR reductions were found between individuals with low or high BMI.