Alcohol consumption and probable rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder.

Objective: To systematically examine the association between alcohol intake and likelihood of having probable rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (pRBD) 6 years later.

Methods: The study included 11,905 participants (mean age: 47.7 years) of the Kailuan Study, free of stroke, cancer, Parkinson disease, dementia, and head injury in 2006. We determined pRBD using a validated RBD questionnaire-Hong Kong in 2012. Amounts and types of alcohol intake were collected with questionnaire. Participants were categorized into: nondrinkers, light (women: 0-0.4 servings/day; men: 0-0.9 servings/day), moderate (women: 0.5-1.0 servings/day; men: 1-2 servings/day), and heavy drinkers(women: >1 serving/day; men: >2 servings/day). To examine the alcohol-pRBD relationship, we used logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for demographic characteristics, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, physical activity, body mass index, and plasma concentrations of lipids and urate.

Results: Compared with nondrinkers, current drinkers had a 23% higher likelihood of having pRBD (adjusted OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.07-1.59). Both moderate (adjusted OR: 1.53, 95% CI 1.01-2.30) and heavy drinkers (adjusted OR: 1.29, 95% CI 1.00-1.66), but not light drinkers (adjusted OR: 1.16, 95% CI 0.94-1.44), had a significantly higher likelihood of having pRBD, relative to nondrinkers. There was a nonsignificant trend between consumption of each individual alcoholic beverages (i.e., beer, wine, or hard liquor) and higher likelihood of having pRBD (adjusted ORs ranged from 1.11 to 1.49).

Conclusions: Alcohol consumption was associated with a higher likelihood of having pRBD. Future prospective studies with clinically confirmed RBD, large sample size for information on types of alcoholic beverage are warranted.