Mortality in British vegetarians

Abstract

Objective: To compare the mortality of British vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Design: Analysis of original data from two prospective studies each including a large proportion of vegetarians -the Oxford Vegetarian Study and the Health Food Shoppers Study. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) compared with the population of England and Wales were calculated from deaths before age 90 for vegetarians and nonvegetarians in each study. Death rate ratios (DRRs) for vegetarians compared with nonvegetarians within each study were calculated for each of 14 major causes of death. Setting: UK. Subjects: Twenty-one thousand men and women aged 16 -89 years at recruitment, including more than 8000 vegetarians. Results: SMRs for all causes of death were significantly below the reference level of 100 in both studies: 52 (95% confidence interval (CI) 49-56) based on 1131 deaths in the Oxford Vegetarian Study and 59 (57 -61) based on 2346 deaths in the Health Food Shoppers Study. For all causes of death, the DRR for vegetarians compared with nonvegetarians was close to one in both studies: 1.01 (95% CI 0.89-1.14) in the Oxford Vegetarian Study, 1.03 (0.95-1.13) in the Health Food Shoppers Study. Conclusions: British vegetarians have low mortality compared with the general population. Their death rates are similar to those of comparable non-vegetarians, suggesting that much of this benefit may be attributed to non-dietary lifestyle factors such as a low prevalence of smoking and a generally high socio-economic status, or to aspects of the diet other than the avoidance of meat and fish.

Nutrition, lifestyle and colorectal cancer incidence: a prospective investigation of 10 998 vegetarians and non-vegetarians in the United Kingdom

“…Nevertheless, the lack of statistical association may reflect the relative small number of cases. A previous analysis of mortality in this cohort (Appleby et al, 2002) showed similar death rates for colorectal cancer in vegetarians and non-vegetarians based on 25 and 24 deaths from colorectal cancer, respectively. However, in a prospective investigation of Seventhday Adventists (Singh and Fraser, 1998), cancer of the colon was significantly more common in non-vegetarians than in vegetarians.…”

Lifestyle Determinants and Mortality in German Vegetarians and Health-Conscious Persons: Results of a 21-Year Follow-up

“…Risk factors for mortality from all causes, malignant neoplasms, circulatory diseases, and ischemic heart diseases All causes (n = 456) Malignant neoplasms (n = 107) Circulatory diseases (n = 219) Ischemic heart diseases (n = 60) Both subjects who avoided meat and fish and those who consumed moderate amounts of meat and/or fish experienced strongly reduced mortality, indicating that both groups are not representative of the general population. A similar 50% to 60% reduction in mortality has been reported for other vegetarian and health-conscious cohorts in Europe after a comparable length of follow-up time (5,11). Several nondietary factors that differ in their prevalence in our study population and in the general population could partly explain the low mortality.…”

Epidemiologia nutricional

“…Os estudos devem levar em consideração o fato de que os vegetarianos são geralmente mais magros que os indivíduos onívoros (Kennedy et al, 2001) e que os níveis pressóricos nas populações ocidentalizadas tendem a aumentar com o peso, uma vez que as diferenças no peso corporal de indivíduos vegetarianos e não vegetarianos pode ser um importante fator contribuinte para as diferenças de pressão arterial observadas entre esses grupos (Appleby et al, 2002). Outro fator a ser avaliado é o fato de que dietas vegetarianas apresentam menor densidade energética e maior conteúdo de fibras, embora os estudos observacionais e ensaios clínicos não tenham chegado a consenso sobre o efeito significativo das fibras nos níveis pressóricos (Burke et al, 2001;He & Whelton, 1999).…”