The role of the type of alcoholic beverage in the relation between drinking pattern and ischaemic heart disease is another important factor that has been debated. A favourable effect of wine on the incidence of ischaemic heart disease or on mortality rates is often reported in populations where wine is the predominant alcoholic beverage consumed,40 whereas inverse associations between beer or spirits and ischaemic heart disease are observed in populations characterised by a high intake of these alcoholic drinks.6 In our study, wine drinking was associated with a lower risk of ischaemic heart disease, both in Belfast and the French centres. Thus we suggest that wine consumption in itself is of greater importance than the volume of wine consumed and that wine associated behaviour is at least as significant as wine consumption. A study conducted in France showed that people who drink moderate quantities of alcohol and wine drinkers have healthier behaviours and a reduced level and frequency of cardiovascular risk factors than abstainers and people who drink other beverages.41 Wine drinking in Belfast tended to be associated with people
