Alcohol Consumption and a Decline in Glomerular Filtration Rate: The Japan Specific Health Checkups Study

Previous studies have reported conflicting results on the clinical impact of alcohol consumption on the glomerular filtration rate (GFR). This retrospective cohort study aimed to assess the dose-dependent association between alcohol consumption and the slope of the estimated GFR (eGFR) in 304,929 participants aged 40–74 years who underwent annual health checkups in Japan between April 2008 and March 2011. The association between the baseline alcohol consumption and eGFR slope during the median observational period of 1.9 years was assessed using linear mixed-effects models with the random intercept and random slope of time adjusting for clinically relevant factors. In men, rare drinkers and daily drinkers with alcohol consumptions of ≥60 g/day had a significantly larger decline in eGFR than occasional drinkers (difference in multivariable-adjusted eGFR slope with 95% confidence interval (mL/min/1.73 m(2)/year) of rare, occasional, and daily drinkers with ≤19, 20–39, 40–59, and ≥60 g/day: −0.33 [−0.57, −0.09], 0.00 [reference], −0.06 [−0.39, 0.26], −0.16 [−0.43, 0.12], −0.08 [−0.47, 0.30], and −0.79 [−1.40, −0.17], respectively). In women, only rare drinkers were associated with lower eGFR slopes than occasional drinkers. In conclusion, alcohol consumption was associated with the eGFR slope in an inverse U-shaped fashion in men but not in women.