Written by Joyce Smith, BS. This prospective cohort study of the general Chinese population demonstrated a significantly inverse association of egg consumption (up to <1 egg/day) with CVD, ischemic heart disease, hemorrhagic stroke, ischemic stroke, as well as major coronary events.
Today cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death and disability worldwide (including China). Ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, both hemorrhagic and ischemic, are the greatest contributors 1. IHD is the number one cause of premature death in most Western countries; however, in China stroke is the leading cause of death, followed by IHD. While the majority of strokes among Chinese are ischemic, their incidence of hemorrhagic stroke is greater than that in high-income countries (23.8% vs 9–13%) 2,3.
The effect of egg consumption on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke has been controversial. Previous studies using smaller sample sizes, found fewer CVD events and were unable to obtain accurate estimates on the associations of egg consumption with stroke subtypes 4,5. Qin et al6 aimed to examine the associations of egg consumption with CVD, including IHD, major coronary events (MCE), and both hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke in the China Calorie Biobank (CKB) study 7, an ongoing prospective cohort of 512, 891 participants aged 30–79 years from 10 geographically diverse survey sites (five urban and five rural) across China who were recruited from 2004 to 2008. A baseline comprehensive laptop questionnaire including sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle behaviors, diet, participant and family medical history and medications was done on all participants 6. Five percent of participants were randomly re-surveyed every five years. Final analysis involved 461,213 participants. Logistic and multilinear regression, stratified Cox proportional hazard models, to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for the associations between egg consumption and CVD, IHD, MCE, and both hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke.6
Compared with non-consumption, this prospective cohort study found that more frequent egg consumption was associated with CVD, IHD, MCE, and both hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke independent of other risk factors. In fact, daily egg consumption of 5.32 eggs/week compared to no eggs or rare consumption of 2.03 eggs/week, resulted in a risk for IHD of 12%.6
At baseline, 13.1% of participants reported daily egg consumption (usual amount 0.76 egg/day) and 9.1% reported never or very rare consumption (usual amount 0.29 egg/day). Compared with no consumers, daily egg consumption was significantly associated with lower risk of CVD, IHD, MCE, and both hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke (P for linear trend <0.05). ). In particular, daily consumers also had an 18% lower risk of CVD death and a 28% lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke death compared to no consumers. Notably, each one egg increment per week was associated with an 8% lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke. However, inverse associations with mortality from IHD and ischemic stroke were insignificant. This study demonstrating an association between moderate level of egg consumption of up to <1egg/day and a lower cardiac event rate contributes scientific evidence to the dietary guidelines regarding egg consumption for the healthy Chinese adult population.6
Source: Qin, Chenxi, Jun Lv, Yu Guo, Zheng Bian, Jiahui Si, Ling Yang, Yiping Chen et al. “Associations of egg consumption with cardiovascular disease in a cohort study of 0.5 million Chinese adults.” Heart (2018): heartjnl-2017.
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Posted July 23, 2018.
Joyce Smith, BS, is a degreed laboratory technologist. She received her bachelor of arts with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from the University of Saskatchewan and her internship through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She currently resides in Bloomingdale, IL.
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