Alcohol Drinking Patterns and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Among Younger Women

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Abstract
PROSPECTIVE STUDIES of alcohol intake and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus have produced conflicting results. Some,1-5 but not all,6,7 studies have implicated heavy drinking as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus.1-4 Conversely, several recent prospective studies,8-13 mainly conducted in men, have suggested that light to moderate drinking may be inversely associated with the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. This is consistent with the observations that low to moderate amounts of alcohol intake may increase insulin sensitivity and slow glucose uptake from a meal.14-17 Few prospective studies have examined the relationship between alcohol intake and diabetes mellitus in women. In an early study of women aged 34 to 59 years from the original Nurses' Health Study, low to moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a lower risk of diabetes mellitus,18 which was confirmed in a later analysis from the same cohort.13 In the Rancho Bernardo cohort1 and in the San Antonio Heart Study,4 alcohol consumption was positively associated with risk of diabetes mellitus in men, but not in women. In the latter study,4 alcohol consumption was inversely associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus in women. The influence of patterns of drinking or type of drink on the risk of diabetes mellitus has been less studied, but the inverse relationship seems to depend on frequency and pattern of drinking.12 This study aims to examine the relationship between alcohol consumption and type 2 diabetes mellitus among women aged 25 to 42 years who participated in the Nurses' Health Study II, with focus on (1) the role of lifestyle factors that may confound or modify the main association, (2) the influence of beverage choice, and (3) the impact of frequency of alcohol consumption.

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