Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Disease: An Updated Systematic Review

Use of supplemental long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and risk for cardiac death: An updated meta-analysis and review of research gaps

“…The present results do not agree with the conclusions from the 2016 AHRQ systematic review. 33 However, in that report, only the largest studies were evaluated, and exclusion of smaller studies may have materially affected the findings. Specifically, the AHRQ review identified an outcome of cardiac death for only 4 RCTs 26,28,34,35 and did not report a pooled estimate and stated that the RCTs of EPA 1 DHA showed ''inconsistent effects'' on cardiac death, with effect sizes ranging from 0.45 to 1.45.…”

“…29 Because of the low risk for adverse effects with LC-OM3 supplementation, even a modest benefit is clinically meaningful. 33 Subgroup analyses show numerically larger benefits (12.9%-29.1%, all P , .05) in studies that used .1 g/d of EPA 1 DHA, and in higher risk groups, including those with greater mean or median levels of TGs ($150 mg/dL) or LDL-C ($130 mg/dL), secondary prevention study samples, and studies with lower baseline use of statins (which is also a proxy for use of other cardioprotective agents). These results suggest that additional research is warranted to further evaluate the potential risk reduction with LC-OM3 supplementation at higher dosages and in higher risk samples.…”

Effects of a purified krill oil phospholipid rich in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids on cardiovascular disease risk factors in non-human primates with naturally occurring diabetes type-2 and dyslipidemia

“…More recent studies, applying lower omega-3 doses, have not been able to demonstrate similar effects on circulating cholesterols and for Omacor/Lovaza it has been published that in parallel with its triglyceride-reducing effect, a slight increase in LDL-c and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) levels is observed [16, 22]. The general consensus in the literature seems to be that use of moderate doses of EPA and DHA, i.e., in the range of 0.5–5 g/day, does not reduce LDL-c concentrations in blood, a conclusion also reached by an Evidence-based Practice Center program under contract to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), US Department of Health and Human Services in a report issued already back in 2004 [23] and updated recently with the same conclusion [24]. However, a remaining issue with the published data on LC omega-3 s and cholesterols is that important factors like dose levels, duration of treatment, type of omega-3 preparations used, EPA/DHA ratio in the dosed products, baseline cholesterol levels, diet, age and health status of the subjects as well as compliance with the planned dosing regimens vary considerably.…”

An exploration of crowdsourcing citation screening for systematic reviews

“…The other 3 systematic reviews pertained to the diagnosis of acute appendicitis 16 ; use of decision aids by people facing screening and treatment decisions for early cancer 17 ; and associations of omega-3 fatty-acid intake and cardiovascular disease risk factors and outcomes. 18 We selected these 4 topics because they span different questions (treatment versus diagnosis; cancer versus infection versus cardiovascular disease; radiation therapy versus quality improvement intervention versus nutrient intake) and thus may pose different degrees of difficulty to nonexpert workers.…”