The research question in the article that I chose is whether or not alcohol consumption of moderate quantities, and binge drinking, are associated with a higher risk of incident atrial fibrillation in a large cohort of people who already have cardiovascular disease or diabetes with end-organ damage. The type of study used was a cohort study, most likely a prospective cohort study. The cohort studied patients who had no heart failure and were at a high risk for cardiovascular events. Alcohol consumption was determined by a questionnaire. Regular alcohol consumption was considered to be at least one drink/week of a standard glass of beer, wine, or shot. Moderate consumption was up to 2 drinks/day or 1-14 drinks/week for women and 3 drinks/day or 1-21 drinks/week for men. High consumption was more than 2 drinks/day for women and more than 3 drinks/day for men. Binge drinking was defined as having more than 5 drinks/day. The exposed group was the level of alcohol consumed. The not exposed group were those who consumed one drink/week or less. The outcome was whether or not the participant suffered an atrial fibrillation. The no-outcome group was those who did not suffer any atrial fibrillations. The measure of association used for this study was the incident rate, which is the number of incident cases divided by the person-time. The incidence rate of atrial fibrillation for the low-level alcohol consumption group was 14.2 per 1000 person-years. The incidence rate in the moderate drinker group was 17.5 per 1000 person-years. The incidence rate for high consumption group was 18.7 per 1000 person-years. The findings were considered to be statistically significant. Both the study and the article suggest that there is definitely an increased risk of having an atrial fibrillation while regularly consuming alcohol when one already has heart disease. The article states that it is still not clear yet whether or not the drinking is the sole cause of the atrial fibrillation. The findings suggest that when someone already has heart issues, even moderate drinking can actually cause more atrial fibrillation events. This relationship falls in the causal association because although the alcohol consumption may not explicitly be causing the atrial fibrillation in those free of heart disease, it can lead to a higher incidence in the event occurring when one already has heart disease. I thought the news article did a good job covering the content of the abstract. It summarized the abstract in a way that any person could understand, not just someone with a scientific background. It also gave other information that people needed, just as what an atrial fibrillation was and ways to reduce risk of heart disease. The title of the news article is “Moderate drinking linked to abnormal heart rhythm.” This could be misleading if someone did not actually read the article or the study itself. At a glance, the reader might think that moderate drinking in general could lead to having an abnormal heart rhythm. The news article goes on to say that the risk of developing the abnormal heart rhythm through moderate drinking happened in people who already had heart disease. The news article also states that the participants were all “older adults who either had clogged arties, a history of stroke or diabetes complications such as kidney disease. Most had coronary heart disease.” Coronary heart disease is the United State’s leading cause of death. The title takes on a very different meaning if someone thinks about it as just moderate drinking in anybody on the street as opposed to an older person with existing heart issues. I do not drink very often. Maybe only one or two times a month. I do not have the best diet, however, and I do not exercise as often as I should. Being a busy study, it is a constant battle to eat healthfully and exercise at least three to four times a week. However, coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US and I need to continue eating healthier foods and exercising more. Over the last several months, I have been able to cut out unnecessary snacking (usually sugar-filled sweets). I have been exercising about once or twice a week for about fifteen minutes, but I need to actively increase my exercise time. *

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