Alcohol use, alcohol dosage and alcohol-related problems are all associated with an increased risk of tuberculosis (TB), particularly in the African region, according to a new study published in the European Respiratory Journal.
Sameer Imtiaz, along with colleagues in Canada, France, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany, conducted meta-analyses of alcohol use, dosage and alcohol-related problems as risk factors for tuberculosis incidence using eight cohort and 28 case-control studies, and re-estimated the global alcohol-attributable TB burden based on updated risk relations (RRs).
The analyses showed that alcohol use was associated with a 35% higher risk of TB compared to no alcohol use, and TB risk rose as ethanol intake increased; ethanol intake of 60g per day was associated with a 68% higher risk of TB compared to no alcohol use.
Based on RRs from linear dose-response meta-analyses, alcohol consumption was estimated to have caused 1,587,449 incident cases of TB globally in 2014, corresponding to 22.02 cases per 100,000 people. Alcohol consumption was also estimated to have caused 169,721 TB deaths globally in 2014.
Overall, alcohol consumption was associated with an increased risk of TB in all meta-analyses; the authors thus consider alcohol use to be a major contributor to the burden of TB.
The new research is accompanied by an editorial by Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of the Global TB Programme at the World Health Organization (WHO), and Dr Vladimir Poznyak, Coordinator of the Management of Substance Use also at the WHO, which calls for more action to target the harmful use of alcohol for the prevention and treatment of TB.