Heavy alcohol consumption increases the risk of active tuberculosis in Taiwanese adults: a nation-wide population-based cohort study.

Abstract

To investigate the impact of alcohol exposure on tuberculosis (TB) development in Taiwanese adults. Participants from the Taiwan National Health Interview Survey. Alcohol consumption and other covariates were collected by in-person interviews at baseline. Incident cases of active TB were identified from the National Health Insurance database. A multivariable Cox regression model was used to estimate the association between alcohol consumption and active TB, with adjustment for age, sex, smoking, socio-economic status and other covariates. Taiwan National Health Interview Survey. A total of 46 196 adult participants aged ≥ 18 years from three rounds (2001, 2005, 2009) of the Taiwan National Health Interview Survey. Alcohol consumption was classified into never, social, regular or heavy alcohol use. Heavy alcohol consumption was defined as intoxication at least once/week. Of the 46 196 study subjects, 61.8, 24.2, 13.5 and 0.5% were classified as never, social, regular and heavy alcohol users, respectively. During the 398 443 person-years of follow-up, 279 (0.60%) subjects developed new-onset active TB. After adjusting for the subject demographics and comorbidities, heavy [hazard ratio (HR) = 5.27; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.51-11.09] and regular alcohol users (HR = 1.80; 95% CI = 1.32-2.45) had increased risks of incident TB compared to never users. Moreover, a positive trend between increasing levels of alcohol consumption and the risk of active TB was noted (P < 0.001). In Taiwan, heavy and regular alcohol consumption are associated with higher risks of active tuberculosis.