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Associations of egg consumption with incident cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality

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Abstract

Eggs are nutrient-dense while also loaded with abundant cholesterol, thus making the public hesitant about their consumption. We conducted the study to investigate if egg consumption is associated with incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality. Using the project of Prediction for Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk in China, we included 102,136 adults free of CVD and assessed their egg consumption with food-frequency questionnaires. CVD endpoints and all-cause mortality were confirmed during follow-ups by interviewing participants or their proxies and checking hospital records/death certificates. The HRs (95% CIs) were calculated using the cohort-stratified Cox regression models. During 777,163 person-years of follow-up, we identified 4,848 incident CVD and 5,511 deaths. U-shaped associations of egg consumption with incident CVD and all-cause mortality were observed. Compared with consumption of 3–<6/week, the multivariable-adjusted HRs (95% CIs) of <1/week and ≥10/week for incident CVD were 1.22 (1.11 to 1.35) and 1.39 (1.28 to 1.52), respectively. The corresponding HRs (95% CIs) for all-cause mortality were 1.29 (1.18 to 1.41) and 1.13 (1.04 to 1.24). Our findings identified that both low and high consumption were associated with increased risk of incident CVD and all-cause mortality, highlighting that moderate egg consumption of 3–<6/week should be recommended for CVD prevention in China.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the staff and participants of the China-PAR project for their important participation and contribution. This study was supported by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2019-I2M-2-003 and 2017-I2M-1-004), National Key Research & Development Program of China (2017YFC0211700 and 2018YFE0115300), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91643208). The funders of this study had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100037, China

    Xue Xia, Fangchao Liu, Xueli Yang, Jianxin Li, Jichun Chen, Jie Cao, Liancheng Zhao, Ying Li, Jianfeng Huang, Xiangfeng Lu & Dongfeng Gu

  2. Division of Epidemiology, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital and Cardiovascular Institute, Guangzhou, 510080, China

    Xiaoqing Liu

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 211166, China

    Chong Shen

  4. Department of Cardiology, Fujian Provincial Hospital, Fuzhou, 350014, China

    Ling Yu

  5. Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, 271016, China

    Yingxin Zhao

  6. Sichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Xianping Wu

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  1. Xue Xia
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  9. Ling Yu
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Correspondence to Xiangfeng Lu or Dongfeng Gu.

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The author(s) declare that they have no conflict of interest. This study was approved by the institutional review board at Fuwai Hospital in Beijing, China.

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Xia, X., Liu, F., Yang, X. et al. Associations of egg consumption with incident cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. Sci. China Life Sci. 63, 1317–1327 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-020-1656-8

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