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Vegetarian diet reduced risk for all-cause mortality
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Vegetarian diets are linked to lower all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality, according to data published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Michael J. Orlich, MD, of the Adventist Health Studies, School of Public Health at Loma Linda University in California, and colleagues observed associations between vegetarian diets and lower cardiovascular mortality and lower noncardiovascular, noncancer mortality in this prospective cohort study.
Of the 73,308 patients included in the Adventist Health Study 2 (AHS-2), 5,548 (7.6%) were vegans, 21,177 (28.9%) were lacto-ovo-vegetarians, 7,194 (9.8%) were pesco-vegetarians, 4,031 (5.5%) were semi-vegetarians and 35,359 (48.2%) were not vegetarians.
During a mean follow-up of approximately 6 years, the researchers reported 2,570 deaths, suggesting a mortality rate of 6.05 (95% CI, 5.82-6.29) deaths per 1,000 person-years. Furthermore, the HR for all-cause mortality among all vegetarians vs. nonvegetarians was 0.88 (95% CI, 0.8-0.97), they wrote.
Additional data indicate adjusted HRs for all-cause mortality in vegans as 0.85 (95% CI, 0.73-1.01); 0.91 (95% CI, 0.82-1) in lacto-ovo–vegetarians; 0.81 (95% CI, 0.69-0.94) in pesco-vegetarians; and 0.92 (95% CI, 0.75-1.13) in semi-vegetarians vs. nonvegetarians.
“These results demonstrate an overall association of vegetarian dietary patterns with lower mortality compared with the nonvegetarian dietary pattern. They also demonstrate some associations with lower mortality of the pesco-vegetarian, vegan, and lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets specifically compared with the nonvegetarian diet,” the researchers wrote.
Disclosure: Orlich reports honoraria from the Northern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and the Southern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
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