Table 2.

Hazard ratios for cardiovascular disease, all-cause mortality, and death due to external causes according to change in alcohol consumption among initial non-drinkers.

	Alcohol intake during second health examination (drinks per day)
	0	> 0– ≤ 1	> 1– ≤ 2	> 2– ≤ 4	> 4
MACE
Events	2,271	189	55	46	22
Person-years	285,301	31,442	7,304	5,249	2,373
aHR (95% CI)	1.00 (reference)	0.79 (0.68–0.92)	0.85 (0.64–1.11)	0.95 (0.71–1.28)	1.05 (0.69–1.61)
Coronary artery disease
Events	954	88	27	22	14
Person-years	285,301	31,442	7,304	5,249	2,373
aHR (95% CI)	1.00 (reference)	0.75 (0.60–0.93)	0.79 (0.53–1.16)	0.83 (0.54–1.28)	1.18 (0.69–2.02)
Stroke
Events	1,332	102	29	24	8
Person-years	285,301	31,442	7,304	5,249	2,373
aHR (95% CI)	1.00 (reference)	0.83 (0.68–1.02)	0.93 (0.64–1.35)	1.07 (0.71–1.61)	0.85 (0.42–1.71)
All-cause mortality
Events	1,213	108	25	25	10
Person-years	288,297	31,698	7,392	5,317	2,402
aHR (95% CI)	1.00 (reference)	0.89 (0.73–1.09)	0.76 (0.51–1.14)	1.02 (0.69–1.53)	1.11 (0.58–2.08)
Death due to external causes	0	> 0–≤ 2		> 2
Events	157	21		11
Person-years	288,297	288,297		39,090
aHR (95% CI)	1.00 (reference)	0.89 (0.56–1.42)		2.06 (1.09–3.90)

Adjusted hazard ratio calculated by Cox proportional hazards regression after adjustments for age, sex, household income, smoking, physical activity, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, fasting serum glucose, total cholesterol, and Charlson comorbidity index.

Death due to external causes, the exposure group were composed of 0, > 0– ≤ 2, and > 2 drinks per day due to the small number of events.

Acronyms: MACE major adverse cardiovascular events, aHR adjusted hazard ratio, CI confidence interval.