Lifelong Choices: Vegetarian Diets and Their Impact on Mortality Risks
Vegetarian diets are often heralded for their health benefits, and a recent study offers robust evidence supporting this. Researchers evaluated different vegetarian diets among older adults and found significant associations with reduced mortality from several major diseases, including heart disease and diabetes. The comprehensive analysis, involving a large cohort of over 88,000 participants, showcases the long-term health advantages of adopting plant-based eating habits.
However, the benefits of vegetarianism aren't uniformly distributed. Certain risks, such as increased rates of stroke and dementia in older vegetarians, necessitate a balanced view when considering diet as a strategy for longevity. This nuanced finding points to the complexity of dietary effects on health, suggesting that while plant-based diets can be beneficial, they might also require careful nutritional balance as one ages.
These insights are crucial for public health strategies, especially in aging societies striving to reduce healthcare burdens. By encouraging a shift towards more plant-centered diets, policymakers can potentially leverage dietary habits as a non-invasive way to enhance population health, though the approach should be tailored to individual health profiles and life stages.
Article Information
Cause-specific and all-cause mortalities in vegetarian compared with those in nonvegetarian participants from the Adventist Health Study-2 cohort
Published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Grace P. Abris et al.
Abstract
Background: There have been mixed results reported internationally when associating vegetarian dietary patterns with all-cause and cause-specific mortalities.
Objectives: This study aimed to extend our previous results by evaluating, with a larger number of deaths (N = 12,515), cause-specific mortalities comparing different vegetarian types with nonvegetarians.
Methods: This prospective study used data from the Adventist Health Study-2 cohort. Mortality was ascertained between study baseline, 2002-2007, and follow-up through 2015. Dietary data were collected at baseline using a validated quantitative food frequency questionnaire and then categorized into 5 dietary patterns: nonvegetarian, semivegetarian, pescovegetarian, lacto-ovovegetarian, and vegan. Main outcomes and measures include all-cause and cause-specific mortalities using Cox proportional hazards regression models and competing risk methods.
Results: The analytic sample included 88,400 participants who provided 971,424 person-years of follow-up. We report results pairwise as estimated at ages 65 and 85 y owing to age dependence of many hazard ratios (HRs). Compared with nonvegetarians, vegetarians had lower risks of mortality, overall (HR: 0.89; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.83, 0.95; HR: 0.98; 95% CI: 0.91, 1.04), from renal failure (HR: 0.52; 95% CI: 0.38, 0.70; HR: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.55, 0.76), infectious disease (HR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.40, 0.82; HR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.70, 1.17), diabetes (HR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.33, 0.78; HR: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.53, 0.88), select cardiac (HR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.65, 0.87; HR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.83, 0.95), and ischemic heart disease causes (HR: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.59, 0.90; HR: 0.84; 95% CI: 0.75,0.94). Vegans, lacto-ovovegetarians, and pescovegetarians were also observed to have lower risks of total mortality and several similar cause-specific mortalities. However, higher cause-specified neurologic mortalities were observed among older vegetarians (estimated at age 85 y), specifically stroke (HR: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.33), dementia (HR: 1.13; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.27), and Parkinson's disease (HR: 1.37; 95% CI: 0.98, 1.91). Results in Black subjects for vegetarian/nonvegetarian comparisons largely followed the same trends, but HRs were less precise owing to smaller numbers.
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