Whole grain and refined grain consumption and the risk of hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Aune, Dagfinn
Metoudi, Michael
Sadler, Isabelle
Kassam, Shireen
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
A high intake of whole grains has been associated with a reduced risk of hypertension, however, studies have not been entirely consistent. Findings regarding refined grains and hypertension have also been inconsistent. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies on whole grain and refined grain consumption and hypertension risk. PubMed and Embase databases were searched up to 25th of July 2024. Random effects models were used to estimate summary relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between whole grain and refined grain intake and hypertension. Restricted cubic splines were used to investigate potential nonlinear associations. Nine cohort studies were included in the meta-analysis. The summary RR (95% CI) for high vs. low whole grain intake was 0.74 (0.59–0.93, I2 = 97%, pheterogeneity<0.001, n = 9) and per 90 g/d was 0.86 (0.82–0.90, I2 = 63%, pheterogeneity=0.008, n = 8). The summary RR (95% CI) for high vs. low refined grain intake was 0.94 (0.88–1.01, I2 = 7.9%, pheterogeneity=0.36, n = 5) and per 90 g/d was 0.97 (0.93–1.02, I2 = 0%, pheterogeneity=0.42, n = 4). There was no indication of publication bias in either analysis, although the number of studies was low for refined grains. There was no evidence of nonlinearity for whole grains (pnonlinearity=0.31) or refined grains (pnonlinearity=0.21), and for whole grains there was a 22% reduction in risk at 200 vs. 0 g/d. These findings provide further support for a beneficial role of whole grain consumption in relation to hypertension risk and support recommendations to increase whole grain intake in the general population. No clear association was observed between refined grains and risk of hypertension.
Date Issued
2025-07-01
Date Acceptance
2025-06-02
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2025, 15
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
15
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
21447
Date Publish Online
2025-07-01