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Elevated inflammation in association with alcohol abuse among Blacks but not Whites: results from the MIDUS biomarker study

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Abstract

Some studies document racial disparities in self-reported health associated with alcohol use and abuse. However, few studies examined biomarkers that underlie the onset of alcohol-related chronic diseases. We investigated whether the association between alcohol abuse and five biomarkers of inflammation (CRP, IL-6, fibrinogen, E-selectin, sICAM-1) vary between Black and White Americans aged 35 to 84 (n = 1173) from the Midlife in the United States Biomarker Study. Multivariable Ordinary Least Squares regressions were used to assess Black–White differences in the association between alcohol abuse and the biomarkers. Race moderated the association between alcohol abuse and CRP (b = 0.56, SE = 0.28, p = 0.048), IL-6 (b = 0.65, SE = 0.22, p = 0.004), and a composite inflammation score (b = 0.014, SE = 0.07, p = 0.041). These findings potentially shed light for why alcohol has a stronger negative association with poorer health for Blacks compared to Whites. Analysis should be replicated in larger prospective cohorts.

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Abbreviations

BMI:

Body mass index

CRP:

C-reactive protein

CVD:

Cardiovascular diseases

E-selectin:

Endothelial leukocyte adhesion molecule-1

Alcohol abuse:

Alcohol use disorders

ELISA:

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

GCRC:

General clinical research center

IL-6:

Interleukin-6

MIDUS:

Midlife in the United States Study

sICAM-1:

Soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1

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Acknowledgements

Grant from the National Institute on Aging (P01-AG020166) to conduct a longitudinal follow-up of the MIDUS (Midlife in the U.S.) investigation. The original study was supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development. Support was also provided by 1UL1RR025011 (UW) a grant from the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program of the National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, 60 College Street, 403, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA

    Yusuf Ransome

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Maryland School of Public Health, 4200 Valley Drive, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Natalie Slopen

  3. Center for Molecular Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Solna, Sweden

    Oskar Karlsson

  4. Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University, Box 591, 751 24, Uppsala, Sweden

    Oskar Karlsson

  5. Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    David R. Williams

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Correspondence to Yusuf Ransome.

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Authors Yusuf Ransome, Natalie Slopen, Oskar Karlsson, and David R. Williams declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained by all study participants. MIDUS data are publicly available online, and the study is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), the aging program within Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan.

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Ransome, Y., Slopen, N., Karlsson, O. et al. Elevated inflammation in association with alcohol abuse among Blacks but not Whites: results from the MIDUS biomarker study. J Behav Med 41, 374–384 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-017-9905-4

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