Abstract
Associations of low-to-moderate consumption of red and processed meat with mortality would add to the evidence of possible adverse effects of these common foods. This study aims to investigate the association of red and processed meat intake with mortality. The Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2) is a prospective cohort study of ~96,000 Seventh-day Adventist men and women recruited in the US and Canada between 2002 and 2007. The final analytic sample after exclusions was 72,149. Cox proportional hazards regression was used and hazard ratios (HR) and confidence intervals (CI) were obtained. Diet was assessed by a validated quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), calibrated using six 24-h dietary recalls. Mortality outcome data were obtained from the National Death Index. During a mean follow-up of 11.8 years, there were 7961 total deaths, of which 2598 were Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) deaths and 1873 were cancer deaths. Unprocessed red meat was associated with risk of all-cause mortality (HR: 1.18; 95% CI: 1.07–1.31) and CVD mortality (HR: 1.26; 95% CI: 1.05–1.50). Processed meat alone was not significantly associated with risk of mortality. The combined intake of red and processed meat was associated with all-cause mortality (HR: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.11–1.36) and CVD mortality (HR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.12–1.60). These findings suggest moderately higher risks of all-cause and CVD mortality associated with red and processed meat in a low meat intake population.
Highlights
Over the last fifty years, global meat consumption has increased in both developing and developed countries [1]
We evaluated the linear relationships of these exposures with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer mortality using 4-knot restricted cubic splines (Supplementary Figure S1)
We report results for the 90th percentiles versus zero-intake: Unprocessed red meat intake was associated with all-cause mortality (HR: 1.16; 95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.02–1.31) and CVD mortality (HR: 1.26; 95% CI: 1.02–1.56)
Summary
Over the last fifty years, global meat consumption has increased in both developing and developed countries [1]. Several studies have found positive associations between intake of red and/or processed meat and total, cardiovascular disease (CVD), or cancer mortality [7,8,9]. These studies were mainly conducted in populations with moderate to high levels of meat intake, leaving unanswered whether zero consumption might correlate with even lower risk. The Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2) has a large number of vegetarians, with even most nonvegetarians having low intakes of red and processed meat [10]. This analysis aims to investigate the association of such low intakes of red and processed meat with all-cause, CVD, and cancer mortality
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