In France, around one in three adults is hypertensive, or around 17 million people. Several risk factors have been identified, such as age, family history, low physical activity, a diet high in salt and low in fruits and vegetables, obesity but also alcohol consumption. According to a study published this Tuesday by Public Health France, due to excessive alcohol consumptioneither more than 10 drinks per weekmore than 650,000 adults under the age of 75 in mainland France, mainly men, suffer from high blood pressure because of this.
Of these 655,000 cases, men are largely in the majority: 624,000 men against 31,000 women, according to this study published in a weekly epidemiological bulletin. The “significant difference” between men and women results mainly, according to the researchers, from greater alcohol consumption by men compared to women, but also from episodes of binge drinking and massive alcoholism more common among some than others.
More than 40,000 deaths attributable to alcohol
Although they recognize certain methodological limits to their study, its authors see it as “a minimum estimate of cases of high blood pressure attributable to alcohol consumption which turns out to be very high, and based on two robust and representative of the French populationthe survey with Esteban health examination and the French Public Health Barometer”.
Faced with these results, the health agency emphasizes the importance of preventing alcohol consumption but also of managing hypertension.
Alcohol remains one of the leading risk factors for disease and death in France, with more than 40,000 attributable deaths. In addition to cardiovascular risks and cirrhosis, the consumption of alcoholic beverages increases the risk of certain cancers.
“If the French have reduced their alcohol consumption over the past thirty years, consumption levels remain very high both in the general population and among certain sub-populations, such as pregnant women,” recalls the Director General of Public Health France, Caroline Semaille , in an editorial overseeing this epidemiological bulletin.
