Study Links Vegetarian Diet to Low Mortality Rate

It is a known fact that a vegetarian diet offers several health benefits. A recent study adds evidence to this: the study findings link vegetarian diets with low death rates and low risk of chronic disease.

The study was led by Michael J. Orlich, M.D., assistant professor of preventive medicine at Loma Linda University in California. The researchers came to a conclusion after analyzing the medical records of 73,308 Seventh-day Adventists in the Adventist Health Study 2.

According to the study background, the possible link between diet and mortality is a significant area of study. Vegetarian diet has been associated with lowered risk of several chronic diseases such as hypertension, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus and ischemic heart disease (IHD).

With the help of a questionnaire, the researchers assessed dietary patients and further divided them into five groups: 'nonvegetarian', 'semi-vegetarian', 'pesco-vegetarian' (includes sea food), 'lacto-ovo-vegetarian' (includes diary and egg products), and 'vegan' (no animal product).

Apart from this, the researchers noted that people in the vegetarian group were older, more educated and most likely to be married, consumed less alcohol, smoked less, indulged in more physical exercise, and were thinner.

"Some evidence suggests vegetarian dietary patterns may be associated with reduced mortality, but the relationship is not well established," the study notes.

In a follow-up time of almost six years, the researchers noticed 2,750 deaths among the study participants, with the overall mortality being six deaths per 1,000 person years. The association was more effective in vegetarian men when compared to women, as researchers noticed a significant reduction in cardiovascular disease mortality and IHD death.

"These results demonstrate an overall association of vegetarian dietary patterns with lower mortality compared with the nonvegetarian dietary pattern. They also demonstrate some associations with lower mortality of the pesco-vegetarian, vegan and lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets specifically compared with the nonvegetarian diet," the authors conclude.

The study details were published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.