Grant: Project Grant

Screening for hazardous and harmful drinking is rarely done in clinical practice. Health care providers face two major barriers when considering advice and treatment for patients with hypertension regarding their alcohol consumption: knowledge and motivation. First, clear guidance and information on the risks associated with alcohol consumption is missing from most guidelines for clinical practice. Although heavy drinking is causally related to the development of hypertension (raised blood pressure [BP]), less is known about the risk associated with less heavy drinking, such as 1-2 drinks per day. Several trials have reported conflicting results regarding BP changes after acute ingestion of alcohol, ranging from a decrease to no change to an increase. Currently, no systematic review on the immediate effects of different levels of alcohol consumption exists. This project will systematically summarize the evidence for the effect of alcohol consumption on changes in blood pressure within 24 hours after alcohol intake in clinical trials. The review will follow international standardized protocols for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Second, the potential impact of implementing screening and brief interventions for hazardous alcohol consumption on BP in clinical practice is unknown. We will model the reduction in BP on a population level in Canada, and, consequently, cardiovascular deaths and hospitalizations, for different scenarios of alcohol reduction based on the results of our previous work and the findings of the proposed study. The project will provide important evidence for the development of BP-specific low-risk drinking guidelines and policy initiatives to reduce the health burden from both alcohol consumption and raised BP.