Abstract 12676: Regular Intake of Pepper Decreases Cardiovascular Mortality: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Spice consumption has been shown to be beneficial on lipid and fasting glucose profile. However, there is no clear evidence regarding long-term effects of spice consumption. Methods: Systematic electronic search of PubMed and EMBASE databases was performed for studies, both randomized and non-randomized, that studied association of pepper consumption with total and cause-specific mortality. A random-effects model was used to calculate hazard ratio (HR). Results: Our search identified 4 observational studies (259,184 participants in regular pepper consumption group and 305,563 participants in low or no pepper consumption group). Regular pepper consumption was associated with significant reduction in all-cause mortality (HR: 0.87 [0.84-0.91], I 2 = 25%, p value <0.00001) (Figure 1). In addition, pepper consumption was associated with significant reduction in cardiovascular mortality (HR 0.84 [0.77-0.91], I 2 = 66 %, p value < 0.0001) (Figure 2), mortality related to ischemic heart disease (HR: 0.76 [0.66 -0.87], I 2 = 0%, p value = 0.0001) and cancer (HR: 0.91 [ 0.85-0.97], I 2 = 0%, p value = 0.003). However, stroke related mortality was similar in both groups (HR: 0.78 [0.56-1.10], I 2 = 61%, p value = 0.15). Conclusions: This study showed that regular intake of pepper significantly decreases rates of all-cause, cancer-related and cardiovascular mortality.