Arrhythmias & electrophysiology
Alcohol consumption and risk of atrial fibrillation: a pairwise and network meta-analysis
Authors' conclusion
Alcohol consumption is associated with a nonlinear, threshold-dependent relationship with incident AF. While low to moderate intake may not increase AF risk, intake beyond 60 g/day significantly increases the AF risk.
Study context
- Population
- Studies of alcohol consumption and incident atrial fibrillation (AF)26 studies, nearly 15 million
- Comparison
- Alcohol intake categories vs no intake
- Outcome
- Incident AF
- Follow-up
- Weighted mean ≈6.4 years
Methodological detailsrandom-effects models, frequentist network meta-analysis, subgroup analysis by sex
- Random-effects models
- Frequentist network meta-analysis
- Subgroup analysis by sex
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
Incident AF
Relative risk (95% CI)P value
Very high vs No intake
1.75(1.25–2.44)
P = 0.04Very low vs No intakelowest risk
0.72(0.63–0.83)
RR
- Very high vs Low · network meta-analysis
- 1.91
- Very high vs Moderate · network meta-analysis
- 2.03
- Very high vs High · network meta-analysis
- 2.00
Further pooled results
Incident AF, by sex (subgroup)
- Sex-stratified analyses showed similar results
Original publication
Alcohol consumption and risk of atrial fibrillation: a pairwise and network meta-analysis. Europace. Published 15 May 2026. doi:10.
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it