The association between alcohol drinking and glycemic management among people with type 2 diabetes in China

Abstract

AbstractIntroductionTo investigate the association between alcohol drinking and glycemic management among adult patients with type 2 diabetes in regional China.Materials and MethodsIn this cross‐sectional survey conducted in Nanjing Municipality of China in 2018, adult type 2 diabetes patients were randomly selected from urban and rural communities. The outcome variable was the glycemic management status. The explanatory measure was alcohol drinking. Mixed‐effects regression models were employed to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for examining the associations of alcohol drinking with glycemic management among type 2 diabetes patients.ResultsAmong the overall 5,663 participants, the glycemic management rate was 39.8% (95% CI = 38.5, 41.1), with 41.2% (95% CI = 39.7, 42.7), 43.9% (95% CI = 38.9, 48.8), and 34.1% (95% CI = 31.5, 36.7) for non‐drinkers, mild/moderate drinkers, and heavy drinkers, respectively. After adjustment for potential confounders and community‐level clustering effect, heavy and mild/moderate alcohol drinkers were at 0.76 (95% CI = 0.66, 0.89) and 1.04 (95% CI = 0.87, 1.28) times odds to have glycemia under control than non‐drinkers among the overall participants. Furthermore, when stratified separately by gender and use of anti‐diabetes agents, the scenario within men, either regular or irregular users of anti‐diabetes agents was the same as that for overall participants, while the association between alcohol drinking and glycemic management became non‐significant among women.ConclusionsHeavy alcohol drinking might have a negative effect on glycemic management among patients with type 2 diabetes irrespective of the use of anti‐diabetes agents in regional China. This study has important public health implications regarding precision intervention on patients' glycemia control for type 2 diabetes management.