Background: We aimed to investigate the association between alcohol drinking patterns and the presence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and diabetes mellitus (DM).

Methods: We used data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2010–2014. The participants were aged ≥30 years and had no previous diagnosis of DM. High-risk drinking was defined as alcohol consumption of ≥7 glasses at a sitting for men, and ≥5 glasses for women. After adjusting for confounding factors, a polychotomous logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the association of drinking patterns with IFG and DM.

Results: For men, high-risk drinking was associated with higher odds ratios (ORs) of IFG (2–4/month, OR 1.51; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.13–2.04; 2–3/week, OR 1.79; 95% CI, 1.38–2.33; and ≥4/week, OR 2.24; 95% CI, 1.65–3.03) and of DM (2–4/month, OR 2.12; 95% CI, 1.20–3.77; 2–3/week, OR 1.78; 95% CI, 1.05–3.03; and ≥4/week, OR 2.98; 95% CI, 1.72–5.17). For women, high-risk drinking was associated with higher risk of IFG (2–4/month, OR 1.51; 95% CI, 1.04–2.21; 2–3/week, OR 3.19; 95% CI, 2.20–4.64; and ≥4/week, OR 2.23; 95% CI, 1.23–4.06), but not of DM, compared with non-high-risk drinkers who consumed alcohol ≤1 day/month. Non-high-risk drinkers who consumed alcohol ≥4 days/week had higher ORs of DM in men, but lower ORs of DM in women compared with non-high risk drinkers who consumed alcohol ≤1 day/month.

Conclusions: Compared with non-high-risk alcohol drinking, even occasional high-risk alcohol drinking was associated with a higher risk of IFG in men and women, and DM in men. Nearly daily non-high-risk alcohol drinking was associated with a higher risk of DM in men and lower risk of DM in women.