The relationship between asthma and suggested alcohol dependence and heavy alcohol use in the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study: The role of depressive symptom severity.

Background: Asthma appears to be associated with a variety of psychiatric illnesses including depression and alcohol use disorder. The current study examined the relationship between asthma, heavy alcohol intake and suggested alcohol dependence controlling for depressive symptom severity.

Methods: Data from 37,625 adult patients at the Cooper Clinic who enrolled in the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study, completed a medical history questionnaire including information on asthma, depressive symptoms and alcohol use were used. The association between lifetime asthma and heavy alcohol intake, while accounting for depressive symptoms (10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CESD)), and demographic variables was examined employing logistic regression with heavy alcohol intake (yes/no) as the outcome. Logistic regression was similarly utilized to examine the association between asthma and suggested alcohol dependence (CAGE scores ≥2: yes/no) among current drinkers (n = 29,235).

Results: Multivariable analysis revealed no significant association between asthma and heavy alcohol consumption with or without controlling for CES-D scores. Asthma was, however, associated with higher odds for suggested alcohol dependence (OR 1.18, 95 % CI 1.07, 1.31), which was attenuated but still significant when controlling for CES-D scores.

Conclusion: Asthma was associated with higher risk for suggested alcohol dependence while current heaving drinking risk was not increased. The suggested drinking findings were slightly less strong when controlling for CES-D scores. The differences between current heavy drinking and CAGE findings might be due to differences in perception of problematic drinking by people with asthma or the timeframe of the assessments (current for drinking, lifetime for CAGE).