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Pizza and risk of acute myocardial infarction

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 58, pages 1543–1546 (2004)Cite this article

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.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by Italian ‘Ministero della Salute’ (Contract no. 177, RF 2001). We thank Dr Patrizia Gnagnarella for assistance on nutritional aspects and Mrs M Paola Bonifacino for editorial assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche “Mario Negri”, Milan, Italy

    S Gallus, A Tavani & C La Vecchia

  2. Istituto di Statistica Medica e Biometria, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    C La Vecchia

Authors
  1. S Gallus
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  2. A Tavani
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  3. C La Vecchia
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Contributions

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.

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Correspondence to S Gallus.

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Gallus, S., Tavani, A. & Vecchia, C. Pizza and risk of acute myocardial infarction. Eur J Clin Nutr 58, 1543–1546 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601997

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