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Moderate alcohol drinking might be protective for systemic lupus erythematosus: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Abstract

Conflicting evidence for the effect of moderate alcohol drinking on the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) existed at present. In the current study, we performed an extensive search of relevant studies and performed a meta-analysis to obtain a more precise estimate. Thirty-eight studies were identified from electronic databases and chosen for detailed review, then six articles from six case–control studies with one cohort study were included in our meta-analyses. Meta-analyses were divided into two subgroups in which patients in the study of Washio et al. treated for less than 5 years (subgroup A) or less than 10 years (subgroup B) were involved, respectively. The odds ratio (OR) of moderate alcohol drinking in the meta-analyses of subgroup B for the development of SLE was significantly decreased (OR 0.723, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.547–0.954), while moderate alcohol drinking in the meta-analysis of subgroup A did not demonstrate a decreased risk of SLE (OR 0.780, 95% CI 0.491–1.240). Meta-analyses of six case–control studies in the two subgroups both demonstrated that moderate alcohol drinking had a protective effect on the development of SLE. Taken together, our results show that moderate alcohol drinking might be protective for SLE.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to Dr. Xian-zhong Shi of Beijing University and Prof. Hui Han of Anhui Medical University for their help in looking for paper articles. This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30571608, 30771848) and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20070366002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, Anhui, 230032, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Wang, Hai-Feng Pan, Dong-Qing Ye & Hong Su

  2. Department of Rheumatology, Anhui Provincial Hospital, Hefei, China

    Xiang-Pei Li

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  1. Jing Wang
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  2. Hai-Feng Pan
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  3. Dong-Qing Ye
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  4. Hong Su
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  5. Xiang-Pei Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dong-Qing Ye.

Additional information

Jing Wang and Hai-Feng Pan contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.

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Wang, J., Pan, HF., Ye, DQ. et al. Moderate alcohol drinking might be protective for systemic lupus erythematosus: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin Rheumatol 27, 1557–1563 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-008-1004-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-008-1004-z

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