Media release

From: American College of Physicians

Alcohol consumption associated with immediate and significantly increased risk for an atrial fibrillation event

New data suggests that even one glass of alcohol can immediately and substantially increase a person’s risk for discrete atrial fibrillation. The strength of the study lies in the fact that alcohol consumption was measured using real-time and objective methods, eliminating recall bias or errors in self-report and allowing for the first assessment of temporal relationships. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. Long-term alcohol use has been associated with the development of atrial fibrillation and avoiding alcohol has been associated with reduced atrial fibrillation. However, the specific and near-term relationship between drinking alcohol and atrial fibrillation is difficult to determine because of how commonly alcohol is consumed.

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, studied 100 adults with intermittent atrial fibrillation who drank an average of 1 drink per month to determine if drinking alcohol increased the risk for a near-term and discrete atrial fibrillation event. Participants wore an electrocardiogram monitor to record the time and length of each episode of atrial fibrillation and an ankle monitor to passively record their alcohol consumption. At 4 weeks, the researchers compared the number of episodes of atrial fibrillation and whether or not the episodes were preceded by alcohol use. They found that of the 56 participants who had an episode of atrial fibrillation, it was about twice as likely that they had had alcohol in the 4 hours before the episode. The association was slightly more with more drinks and with a 6-hour time frame, but it decreased with longer time frames.

According to the researchers, these findings are broadly relevant given that alcohol is the most commonly consumed drug in the world. These data suggest that the likelihood a given atrial fibrillation event will happen is not due to chance alone but is influenced by modifiable factors that the patient can control.