The aim of this study by Ghaussy NO, Sibbitt WL Jr.and Qualls CR, the first in a predominantly Hispanic population, was to investigate the effects of cigarette smoking and alcohol use on the development of SLE.

From the University of New Mexico Systemic Lupus Data Base, 125 patients with well characterised SLE were the subjects for the study with 125 aged and sex matched controls. A rheumatologist confirmed the SLE diagnosis after an in depth face-to-face interview, medical history, physical examination, chart review and appropriate laboratory testing. Regular smoking defined as smoking at least 1 cigarette daily for at least 3 months and alcohol use over the past month (average number of drinks per week) was also recorded. An interview based questionnaire was used to collect clinical data, smoking and drinking status and other demographic variables.

To minimise bias associated with reactive habits induced by disease, smoking before the diagnosis of SLE was the primary variable for subsequent analysis. Analysis of the data by multivariate conditional logistic regression revealed that both smoking before the diagnosis of SLE and ex-smoking before the diagnosis increased the risk for SLE (OR 6.69 and OR 3.62 respectively). Alcohol use did neither emerge as a risk for SLE nor as a protective factor (OR 0.7), nor was there an interactive effect of smoking and alcohol use on SLE risk.

The results of this study are further evidence that cigarette smoking may be an associated risk factor for the development of SLE, where as alcohol does not appear to be a risk factor for the disease.

Source.: Ghaussy NO, Sibbitt WLJr., Qualls CR. Cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and the risk of systemic lupus erythematosus:case-control study. J Rheumatol 28 (2001) 2449-2453.