Is Alcohol Consumption Associated with a Lower Risk of Cardiovascular Events in Patients Treated with Statins? An Observational Real-World Experience
, Tami L. Bair 1, Joseph B. Muhlestein 1,2, Kirk U. Knowlton 1,2 and Benjamin D. Horne 1,4
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The research was conducted on a very large number of patients with all the characteristics of scientific research. The role of statins in protection against cardiovascular risks from alcohol has been investigated. The results of this research were discussed extensively with the results of similar research from the literature and are certainly a contribution to the overall attitude towards the use of alcohol both personally and to social services and medical workers in the recommendations for the use of alcohol and the value of statins in a medical orientation
Author Response
REVIEWER #1
The research was conducted on a very large number of patients with all the characteristics of scientific research. The role of statins in protection against cardiovascular risks from alcohol has been investigated. The results of this research were discussed extensively with the results of similar research from the literature and are certainly a contribution to the overall attitude towards the use of alcohol both personally and to social services and medical workers in the recommendations for the use of alcohol and the value of statins in a medical orientation
Response: We thank the reviewer for their thoughtful review of our manuscript, and we appreciate their conclusion that this represents a useful addition to the scientific database on this topic.
Reviewer 2 Report
In my opinion this is a very well written manuscript , with very good statistics, with very interesting findings . I do not have major remarks , and would like to congratulate on interesting article.
One question is what would be exact definition on alchochol consumption vs non use to group patients? It might be important to stress those definitions in the article as I cannot see them clearely.
Author Response
REVIEWER #2
In my opinion this is a very well written manuscript , with very good statistics, with very interesting findings . I do not have major remarks, and would like to congratulate on interesting article.
One question is what would be exact definition on alcohol consumption vs non-use to group patients? It might be important to stress those definitions in the article as I cannot see them clearly.
Response: We thank the reviewer for their thoughtful review of our manuscript and their opinion that our findings are of interest. As to the request to more clearly provide the definitions of alcohol consumption that we used, we offer the following response, which has now been added to the Methods section, paragraph 4.:
Specific to the question of alcohol consumption, the questionnaire asked, “In the past year, how many drinks of alcoholic beverages have you had per week?” The possible responses were the following: None,<1 drink per week,1-7 drinks per week, >7 drinks per week, or decline to answer. “None” was defined as non-use and any of the <1 drink, 1-7 drinks, or >7 drinks per week responses was considered to represent alcohol consumption. Those who declined to answer were excluded from the analysis.
