Drinking habits and risk of altered liver enzymes in the general population of a rural area in Southern Italy

Abstract Purpose To assess the overall drinking habits (amount and duration of alcohol intake, as well as type of alcoholic drinks consumed) and their potential for alteration of liver enzymes in a random sample of the general population aged ≥18 years of a rural area in Southern Italy. Materials and methods Of the 4000 subjects selected, 3306 (82.7%) agreed to take part in the study. Of these, 41% were teetotallers (54.4% females, 26.1% males; p < 0.01). A very small proportion of subjects reported ≥4 drinks/day (11.9% males, 0.8% females; p < 0.01). Results Increased aspartate aminotransferase and/or alanine aminotransferase values were observed in 148 (4.5%) subjects. Hepatitis C virus positivity alone, excessive body mass index alone and alcohol intake alone were observed in 28.6, 23.8 and 18.4% of cases, respectively. After exclusion of subjects with chronic viral hepatitis infections (hepatitis B virus and/or hepatitis C virus) and adjustment for the confounding effect of age (>50 years) and body mass index (≥25) by multiple logistic regression analysis, subjects who reported consuming >4 drinks/day were 2.4-fold (95%CI = 1.1–5.2) more likely than teetotallers to have altered liver enzyme values; subjects reporting intake below this threshold were not at risk of alterations in aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase (OR 1.4; 95%CI = 0.7–2.6). Conclusions These findings indicate that only a small proportion of the rural population studied (particularly females) can be considered as alcohol misusers. Moreover, a mild alcohol intake (≤4 drinks/day) is not associated with alterations in aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase levels in the absence of other factors such as hepatitis viruses and impaired body mass index.