Although this is not my area, a quick read of the
paper revealed that in both the basic and
adjusted models, men in the top quintile as
compared to the bottom quintile of red meat
consumption, had significantly greater mortality
due to unintentional injury, adverse effects,
suicide, self-inflicted injury, homicide, and
legal intervention" (see Table 2). This effect
was not found for consumption of white meat or
processed meat among men, nor was it found for females.
The authors did not discuss this finding other
than to say, "Overall, we did not find
statistically significant association between
meat consumption and deaths from injury and sudden deaths in most instances."
I wonder if this is evidence of the failure of
the adjusted model to control for important
confounders as it seems unlikely that high
consumption of red meat would cause violent death.
---
Rashmi Sinha, Amanda J. Cross, Barry I.
Graubard, Michael F. Leitzmann, Arthur Schatzkin.
Meat Intake and Mortality: A Prospective Study of
Over Half a Million People. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(6):562-571.
ABSTRACT
Background High intakes of red or processed meat
may increase the risk of mortality. Our objective
was to determine the relations of red, white, and
processed meat intakes to risk for total and cause-specific mortality.
Methods The study population included the
National Institutes of Health–AARP (formerly
known as the American Association of Retired
Persons) Diet and Health Study cohort of half a
million people aged 50 to 71 years at baseline.
Meat intake was estimated from a food frequency
questionnaire administered at baseline. Cox
proportional hazards regression models estimated
hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals
(CIs) within quintiles of meat intake. The
covariates included in the models were age,
education, marital status, family history of
cancer (yes/no) (cancer mortality only), race,
body mass index, 31-level smoking history,
physical activity, energy intake, alcohol intake,
vitamin supplement use, fruit consumption,
vegetable consumption, and menopausal hormone
therapy among women. Main outcome measures
included total mortality and deaths due to
cancer, cardiovascular disease, injuries and
sudden deaths, and all other causes.
Results There were 47 976 male deaths and 23 276
female deaths during 10 years of follow-up. Men
and women in the highest vs lowest quintile of
red (HR, 1.31 [95% CI, 1.27-1.35], and HR, 1.36
[95% CI, 1.30-1.43], respectively) and processed
meat (HR, 1.16 [95% CI, 1.12-1.20], and HR, 1.25
[95% CI, 1.20-1.31], respectively) intakes had
elevated risks for overall mortality. Regarding
cause-specific mortality, men and women had
elevated risks for cancer mortality for red (HR,
1.22 [95% CI, 1.16-1.29], and HR, 1.20 [95% CI,
1.12-1.30], respectively) and processed meat (HR,
1.12 [95% CI, 1.06-1.19], and HR, 1.11 [95% CI
1.04-1.19], respectively) intakes. Furthermore,
cardiovascular disease risk was elevated for men
and women in the highest quintile of red (HR,
1.27 [95% CI, 1.20-1.35], and HR, 1.50 [95% CI,
1.37-1.65], respectively) and processed meat (HR,
1.09 [95% CI, 1.03-1.15], and HR, 1.38 [95% CI,
1.26-1.51], respectively) intakes. When comparing
the highest with the lowest quintile of white
meat intake, there was an inverse association for
total mortality and cancer mortality, as well as
all other deaths for both men and women.
Conclusion Red and processed meat intakes were
associated with modest increases in total
mortality, cancer mortality, and cardiovascular disease mortality.
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/169/6/562
At 3/25/2009 02:37 AM, you wrote:
>It will be interesting to see any future
>critiques of this research. I believe there are
>some critical issues here, but await the input from the statisticians.
>http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/169/6/562
>
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