. 1999;23(1):15–24.

Table 2.

Effect of Beverage Choice on Relative Risk for Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)

Group	Wine	Relative Risk for CAD

		Liquor	Beer
Both sexes	0.8^a	0.9^a	0.7^a
Men	0.9	0.9	0.7^a
Women	0.7^a	0.9	0.7

RR significantly different from 1.0.

NOTE: Relative risk (RR) is defined as the CAD death risk for each drinking category compared with the CAD risk among lifelong abstainers, adjusted for total alcohol consumption. For example, among both sexes, although all beverage types afford some protection against CAD (i.e., RR is less than 1.0 in each case), RR is lowest among beer drinkers and highest among those who consume liquor. This comparison is expressed as a ratio, using the CAD risk among abstainers as a reference, set at 1.0. Results are adjusted for age, sex, race, smoking, education, marital status, and obesity.

SOURCE: Adapted from Klatsky et al. 1997.