The Association between Alcohol Consumption and Telomere Length: A Meta-Analysis Focusing on Observational Studies

Background: Both telomere length and alcohol consumption play important roles in carcinogenesis and biological age. Many efforts have been made to investigate the association between alcohol consumption and telomere length. However, no consensus has been reached yet. Methods: In this article, we performed a meta-analysis to integrate the investigation results in the literature about the association between alcohol consumption and telomere length. After searching articles published between 2000 and 2016, 21 articles (including 27 analyses, total sample size 35,891) met our eligibility criteria. Results: We found a significant association between alcohol consumption and telomere length (Fisher9s combined p-value = 3.52E-8 and Liptak9s weighted p-value = 8.24E-3). We also found that the significance of the association between alcohol consumption and telomere length varies with study type (cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional) and study population (Europe, Asia, American, or Australia). Conclusions: Combined evidence showed that alcohol consumption is associated with telomere length. The consistent quantifications of alcohol consumption and telomere length would benefit the future aggregation of the evidence from different studies.