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Re-evaluation of the associations of egg intake with serum total cholesterol and cause-specific and total mortality in Japanese women

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 72, pages 841–847 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/objective

Egg intake was associated with serum total cholesterol adjusted for age (aTCH) and total mortality in women, but not in men, using data from NIPPON DATA (ND) 80 which followed up for 14 years. Re-evaluation of these associations in a different cohort is needed.

Subject/methods

We analyzed the associations of egg intake with aTCH and cause-specific and total mortality using the ND90 data set with a 15-year follow-up. A nutritional examination was done at the baseline in 1990 using the food-frequency method and by weighed food records. We followed 4686 female participants (ages ≥30 years), with no history of stroke or myocardial infarction (mean age 52.8 years) for 15 years.

Results

The participants were divided into 5 egg intake groups (<1/w, 1–2/w, 1/2d, 1/d, and ≥2/d). There were 203, 1462, 1594, 1387, and 40 women in each group, respectively. Egg intake was not associated with aTCH (P = 0.886). There were 183 cardiovascular disease (CVD), 210 cancer, and 599 total mortality cases during follow-up. Cox analysis, adjusted for background factors, found egg intake was directly associated with total and cancer mortality (HR in the ≥2/d vs. the 1 egg/d group: total, 2.05 (95% CI: 1.20–3.52); cancer, 3.20 (1.51–6.76)), and that cancer mortality in the 1–2/w group was significantly less than that in the 1 egg/d group (0.68 (0.47–0.97)). Egg intake was not associated with CVD mortality.

Conclusions

Egg intake was associated with cancer and total mortality. Reducing egg intake may have some definitive health benefits in women in Japan, at least.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the members of the NIPPON DATA90 Research Group as listed in the last reference.

Funding

Funding

This study was supported by a grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare under the auspices of the Japanese Association for Cerebro-cardiovascular Disease Control, a Research Grant for Cardiovascular Diseases (7A-2) from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and a Health and Labor Sciences Research Grant, Japan (Comprehensive Research on Aging and Health (H11-Chouju-046, H14-Chouju-003, H17-Chouju-012, H19-Chouju-Ippan-014) and Comprehensive Research on Life-Style Related Diseases including Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes Mellitus (H22-Jyunkankitou-Seisyu- Sitei-017)).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Ryukoku University, Otsu, Japan

    Yasuyuki Nakamura

  2. Department of Public Health, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Japan

    Yasuyuki Nakamura, Aya Kadota, Katsuyuki Miura & Hirotsugu Ueshima

  3. Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

    Tomonori Okamura

  4. Tsuruga City University of Nursing, Tsuruga, Japan

    Yoshikuni Kita

  5. Department of Health and Nutrition, University of Human Arts and Sciences, Hasuda, Japan

    Nagako Okuda

  6. Center for Epidemiologic Research in Asia, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Japan

    Aya Kadota, Katsuyuki Miura & Hirotsugu Ueshima

  7. Research Center for Lifestyle-related Diseases, Tokyo, Japan

    Akira Okayama

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  1. Yasuyuki Nakamura
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Correspondence to Yasuyuki Nakamura.

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Nakamura, Y., Okamura, T., Kita, Y. et al. Re-evaluation of the associations of egg intake with serum total cholesterol and cause-specific and total mortality in Japanese women. Eur J Clin Nutr 72, 841–847 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-017-0051-4

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