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Increased intake of fruits, vegetables could save lives globally

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Population-level interventions promoting the increased consumption of fruits and vegetables around the globe could save millions of years lost to disability and premature death from CHD, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions.

Patrick J. Sur, an MPH candidate, and Ashkan Afshin, MD, MPH, MSc, ScD, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, obtained data on consumption of fruits and vegetables from 195 countries and used meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies to analyze the proportion of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) attributable to low intake. Optimal levels of fruit and vegetable consumption were determined based on levels associated with the lowest risk for mortality in the studies.

Low intake of fruit in 2015 accounted for 57.3 million (95% uncertainty interval (UI), 37.1 million-78.4 million) DALYs due to CVD (41.5% from ischemic heart disease and 58.5% from stroke) and low intake of vegetables accounted for 44.6 million DALYs (95% UI, 23.6 million-68.8 million) attributable to CVD (67.3% from ischemic heart disease and 32.7% from stroke).

Middle and low-middle sociodemographic groups had the highest burden of CVD attributable to low intake of fruits and vegetables (17.2% and 14.3% of total DALYs, respectively), whereas the lowest burden was seen in high and high-middle sociodemographic groups (12.7% and 11.2%, respectively).  

Rwanda (5.1% of total DALYs) had the lowest attributable CVD burden for low intake of fruits and North Korea (5.9%) had the lowest burden for low intake of vegetables, with Bangladesh (23.2%) and Mongolia (19.4%) having the highest burden from low intake of fruits and vegetables, respectively.

Sur and Afshin concluded that population-level interventions promoting the increase consumption of fruits and vegetables across the globe could save millions of life years.

Reference:

Sur PJ, Afshin A. Poster P116. Presented at: Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions; March 7-10, 2017; Portland, Ore.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.