Coronary heart disease in mothers and fathers of adult children with alcohol use disorders

Background and aim Having a family member with an alcohol use disorder (AUD) may negatively affect a person's health. Our aim was to study the long-term risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in parents who have an offspring with AUD. Design Cohort study with Cox regression models and co-sibling analyses. Setting Sweden. Participants From population registers, we selected all parent-offspring pairs in which the parent was born in Sweden between 1945 and 1965. Measurements Baseline was set when the offspring was 15 years old and AUD was assessed from medical and criminal registers. The parents were followed for CHD during a mean follow-up of 18 years. Hazard ratios (HRs) in mothers and fathers were calculated and adjusted for potential confounders (year of birth, age at childbirth, sex of the child, parent' AUD, educational level, and marital status). Findings In mothers, the adjusted HR for CHD was 1.24 (95% CI = 1.19-1.28) in relation to having a child with AUD. In fathers, the HR for CHD was lower than in mothers but still increased; the adjusted HRwas 1.08 (95% CI = 1.05-1.12). In the co-sibling analyses, the HRs for mothers were similar to the HRs estimated from the population-based sample, but in fathers the association did not remain significant (HR = 0.98 [0.90-1.06]). Conclusions In Sweden, there appears to be an association between having an offspring with alcohol use disorder and increased risk of developing coronary heart disease. For fathers, the association did not remain in co-sibling analyses.