Cereal intake and mortality in older Chinese: a 15-year follow-up of a prospective cohort study

Ce Sun, Wei Sen Zhang*, Chao Qiang Jiang, Ya Li Jin, Xue Qing Deng, G Neil Thomas, Jean Woo, Kar Keung Cheng, Tai Hing Lam, Lin Xu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

PURPOSE: We examined the association between whole grain and refined grain intake with all-cause, cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality using the data from the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study.

METHODS: 19,597 participants aged 50+ years were recruited from 2003 to 2006 and followed-up until April 2021. Multivariable Cox regression was used to calculate hazard radios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Substitution analysis was used to replace a serving (50 g/day) of whole grain with a serving of refined grain.

RESULTS: During 286,821 person-years of follow-up, 4385 deaths occurred, including 1450 from cancer, 1678 from CVD and 1257 from other causes. Compared with never whole grain intake, the highest intake category of whole grain (> 300 g/week) was associated with lower risk of all-cause (HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.82-0.98) and CVD mortality (HR 0.85, 0.74-0.98). Compared with the low-intake category of refined grain (< 500 g/day), the highest intake category (> 900 g/week) was associated with a lower risk of cancer mortality (HR 0.76, 0.62-0.95), but a higher risk of CVD mortality (HR 1.25, 1.03-1.51). No significant associations were found between whole grain intake and cancer mortality nor refined grain and all-cause mortality. The HRs of all-cause, cancer and CVD mortality substituting a serving of whole grain for refined grain were 0.96 (0.94-0.99), 1.01 (0.99-1.02) and 0.95 (0.90-0.99), respectively.

CONCLUSION: We have first shown that in older Chinese, whole grain intake was associated with lower risk of all-cause and CVD mortality. Our results suggest that intake of whole grain of at least 300 g/week and refined grain of ≤ 900 g/day might be suitable for older Asian. Substituting 50 g/day of whole grain for refined grain was associated with a 4-5% lower risk of all-cause and CVD mortality.

Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Journal of Nutrition
Early online date11 Dec 2022
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 11 Dec 2022

Bibliographical note

© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Cereal intake and mortality in older Chinese: a 15-year follow-up of a prospective cohort study'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this