Abstract
Evidence about the response patterns of fruit and vegetable consumption with the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality was inconsistent. These associations were examined using a large-scale, population-based Chinese cohort comprising 100,728 participants. A food-frequency questionnaire was used to assess fruit and vegetable consumption. Outcomes were ascertained by interviewing individuals or their proxies and checking hospital records or death certificates. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). At the 736,668 person-years of follow-up, 3,677 CVD cases and 5,466 deaths were identified. The multivariable-adjusted HRs for CVD across increasing quartiles of total fruit and vegetable consumption were 1 (reference), 0.94 (95%CI=0.85–1.04), 0.89 (95%CI=0.80–0.98), and 0.85 (95% CI=0.11–0.95). Moreover, participants in the highest quartile displayed a 13% lower risk of all-cause mortality (HR=0.81; 95% CI=0.80–0.95). A nonlinear dose-response relation was found for CVD, without additional benefits beyond a consumption of 600 g d−1, whereas the all-cause mortality risk decreased along with higher consumption, with a linear trend. These associations remained significant for fruit consumption but not for vegetable consumption. Our findings indicated that greater fruit and vegetable consumption was significantly associated with a lower risk of CVD and all cause mortality. Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, especially fruit, in the general population would prevent CVD and premature mortality.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2017-I2M-1-004, 2019-I2M-2-003), National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0211700, 2018YFE0115300), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91643208). We acknowledge the staff and participants of the China-PAR project for their important participation and contribution.
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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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Wang, J., Liu, F., Li, J. et al. Fruit and vegetable consumption, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality in China. Sci. China Life Sci. 65, 119–128 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-020-1896-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-020-1896-x