Meat intake and cause-specific mortality: a pooled analysis of Asian prospective cohort studies.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Pooled analysis of 8 prospective cohort studies
PubMed 23902788 · doi:10.3945/ajcn.113.062638
What was done
Researchers examined temporal trends in Asian meat consumption using United Nations ecological data and conducted a pooled analysis of 8 prospective cohort studies from Bangladesh, China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. The pooled cohort comprised 112,310 men and 184,411 women followed for 6.6 to 15.6 years, recording 24,283 all-cause, 9,558 cancer, and 6,373 cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths. Study-specific hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated via Cox regression and combined using random-effects meta-analysis.
What was found
Red meat intake was substantially lower in Asian countries than in the United States, whereas fish and seafood intake was higher in Japan and Korea. Total meat intake (red meat, poultry, and fish/seafood) showed no association with all-cause mortality when comparing the highest to lowest intake quartiles: HR 1.02 (95% CI: 0.91 to 1.15) in men and HR 0.93 (95% CI: 0.86 to 1.01) in women. Total meat was also not associated with CVD or cancer mortality. Red meat intake specifically was inversely associated with CVD mortality in men and with cancer mortality in women (exact numerical risk estimates not reported in the abstract).
Why it matters
These findings contrast with evidence from Western cohorts that frequently link high red meat intake to elevated mortality, highlighting that meat-associated health risks may differ in populations with lower absolute intake or different overall dietary patterns.
Limits
As an observational analysis, residual confounding by socioeconomic status, overall diet quality, or health behaviors cannot be excluded. The absolute level of red meat consumption was low relative to Western benchmarks, preventing evaluation of very high intake levels. The abstract does not provide specific hazard ratios or confidence intervals for the individual sub-types of meat (red meat, poultry, fish) or cause-specific outcomes.
Cited by
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