1. ¹Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Milan, Italy
2. ²Istituto di Statistica Medica e Biometria, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

Correspondence: S Gallus, Laboratorio di Epidemiologia, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Via Eritrea 62, 20157 Milan, Italy. E-mail: gallus@marionegri.it

Guarantor: S Gallus.

Contributors: SG and CLV had the original idea for the study, and wrote the report with the contribution from AT. CLV contributed to study design and data collection. SG analysed the data.

Received 23 January 2004; Revised 11 March 2004; Accepted 5 April 2004; Published online 12 May 2004.

Abstract

Objectives: Pizza eating has been favourably related to the risk of cardiovascular disease, but the data are limited. To evaluate the potential role of pizza consumption on the risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), we considered data from an Italian study.

Design: We conducted a hospital-based case–control study on 507 cases of nonfatal AMI and 478 controls in Milan, Italy, between 1995 and 1999.

Results: The multivariate odds ratios were 0.78 for occasional, 0.62 for regular and 0.44 for frequent eaters. The estimates were similar across strata of age, sex, smoking and other major covariates.

Conclusions: Some of the ingredients of pizza have been shown to have a favourable influence on the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, there is no single explanation for the present findings. Pizza may in fact represent a general indicator of Italian diet, that has been shown to have potential cardiovascular benefits.