Meat consumption and mortality - results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background: Recently, some US cohorts have shown a moderate association between red and processed meat
consumption and mortality supporting the results of previous studies among vegetarians. The aim of this study
was to examine the association of red meat, processed meat, and poultry consumption with the risk of early death
in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).
Methods: Included in the analysis were 448,568 men and women without prevalent cancer, stroke, or myocardial
infarction, and with complete information on diet, smoking, physical activity and body mass index, who were
between 35 and 69 years old at baseline. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to examine the association
of meat consumption with all-cause and cause-specific mortality.
Results: As of June 2009, 26,344 deaths were observed. After multivariate adjustment, a high consumption of red
meat was related to higher all-cause mortality (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01 to 1.28,
160+ versus 10 to 19.9 g/day), and the association was stronger for processed meat (HR = 1.44, 95% CI 1.24 to
1.66, 160+ versus 10 to 19.9 g/day). After correction for measurement error, higher all-cause mortality remained
significant only for processed meat (HR = 1.18, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.25, per 50 g/d). We estimated that 3.3% (95% CI
1.5% to 5.0%) of deaths could be prevented if all participants had a processed meat consumption of less than
20 g/day. Significant associations with processed meat intake were observed for cardiovascular diseases, cancer,
and ‘other causes of death’. The consumption of poultry was not related to all-cause mortality.
Conclusions: The results of our analysis support a moderate positive association between processed meat
consumption and mortality, in particular due to cardiovascular diseases, but also to cancer.
consumption and mortality supporting the results of previous studies among vegetarians. The aim of this study
was to examine the association of red meat, processed meat, and poultry consumption with the risk of early death
in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).
Methods: Included in the analysis were 448,568 men and women without prevalent cancer, stroke, or myocardial
infarction, and with complete information on diet, smoking, physical activity and body mass index, who were
between 35 and 69 years old at baseline. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to examine the association
of meat consumption with all-cause and cause-specific mortality.
Results: As of June 2009, 26,344 deaths were observed. After multivariate adjustment, a high consumption of red
meat was related to higher all-cause mortality (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01 to 1.28,
160+ versus 10 to 19.9 g/day), and the association was stronger for processed meat (HR = 1.44, 95% CI 1.24 to
1.66, 160+ versus 10 to 19.9 g/day). After correction for measurement error, higher all-cause mortality remained
significant only for processed meat (HR = 1.18, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.25, per 50 g/d). We estimated that 3.3% (95% CI
1.5% to 5.0%) of deaths could be prevented if all participants had a processed meat consumption of less than
20 g/day. Significant associations with processed meat intake were observed for cardiovascular diseases, cancer,
and ‘other causes of death’. The consumption of poultry was not related to all-cause mortality.
Conclusions: The results of our analysis support a moderate positive association between processed meat
consumption and mortality, in particular due to cardiovascular diseases, but also to cancer.
Date Issued
2013-03-07
Date Acceptance
2013-03-07
Citation
BMC Medicine, 2013, 11
ISSN
1741-7015
Publisher
BioMed Central
Journal / Book Title
BMC Medicine
Volume
11
Copyright Statement
© 2013 Rohrmann et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Medicine, General & Internal
General & Internal Medicine
MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL
diet
meat
mortality
cohort
Europe
cardiovascular
cancer
21-YEAR FOLLOW-UP
COLORECTAL-CANCER
RED MEAT
RISK
DISEASE
DIET
CALIBRATION
COHORT
CERTIFICATES
VEGETARIANS
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
63