Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Sep 27, 2022; 14(9): 1747-1756
Published online Sep 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i9.1747
Alcohol intake is associated with a decreased risk of developing primary biliary cholangitis
Janine Adele French, Paul Gow, Steven Simpson-Yap, Kate Collins, Justin Ng, Peter W Angus, Ingrid A F van der Mei
Janine Adele French, Paul Gow, Kate Collins, Justin Ng, Peter W Angus, Department of Gastroenterology, Austin Hospital, Heidelberg 3084, Australia
Steven Simpson-Yap, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Carlton 3053, Australia
Steven Simpson-Yap, Ingrid A F van der Mei, Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Hobart 7000, Australia
Author contributions: French JA, Gow P, Angus PW and van der Mei IAF conducted the research design; French JA conducted the data acquisition; French JA, Simpson-Yap S and van der Mei IAF conducted the data interpretation and all authors were involved with the manuscript preparation; French JA, Simpson-Yap S, Ng J, van der Mei IAF, Angus PW and Gow P approved the final submitted draft; Collins K assisted with submission; Nil other authors/institutions other than those listed were involved with this study; all authors have approved the final version of this manuscript, including the authorship list.
Institutional review board statement: Ethical clearance was obtained from the Austin Hospital’s Health Research and Ethics Committee (HREC 2013/04859) and it complies with acceptable international standards.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. French reports grants from Orphan Australia, grants from Austin Medical Research Foundation, during the conduct of the study.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Janine Adele French, MBBS, Doctor, Department of Gastroenterology, Austin Hospital, 145 Studley Road, PO Box 5555, Heidelberg 3084, VIC, Australia. janine.french@austin.org.au
Received: April 21, 2022
Peer-review started: April 21, 2022
First decision: May 31, 2022
Revised: June 13, 2022
Accepted: August 26, 2022
Article in press: August 26, 2022
Published online: September 27, 2022
Processing time: 154 Days and 13.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Given the paucity of knowledge regarding the aetiology of this disease and that there are likely to be other environmental and lifestyle factors yet to be identified that are related to disease development, we designed this study to address the association of primary biliary cholangitis and lifestyle factors. We have identified, from a case control study, that alcohol intake is associated with a decreased risk of developing primary biliary cholangitis. This is a significant finding in a disease for which very little is known regarding its aetiology.