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Meta-Analysis
. 2017 Jan 13;9(1):63.
doi: 10.3390/nu9010063.

Cheese Consumption and Risk of All-Cause Mortality: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies

Xing Tong  1 , Guo-Chong Chen  2 , Zheng Zhang  3 , Yu-Lu Wei  4 , Jia-Ying Xu  5 , Li-Qiang Qin  6
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Cheese Consumption and Risk of All-Cause Mortality: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies

Xing Tong et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

The association between cheese consumption and risk for major health endpoints has been investigated in many epidemiologic studies, but findings are inconsistent. As all-cause mortality can be viewed as the final net health effect of dietary intakes, we conducted a meta-analysis to examine the long-term association of cheese consumption with all-cause mortality. Relevant studies were identified by a search of the PubMed database through May 2016. Reference lists from retrieved articles were also reviewed. Summary relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using a random-effects model. Pre-specified stratified and dose-response analyses were also performed. The final analysis included nine prospective cohort studies involving 21,365 deaths. The summary RR of all-cause mortality for the highest compared with the lowest cheese consumption was 1.02 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.06), and little evidence of heterogeneity was observed. The association between cheese consumption and risk of all-cause mortality did not significantly differ by study location, sex, age, number of events, study quality score or baseline diseases excluded. There was no dose-response relationship between cheese consumption and risk of all-cause mortality (RR per 43 g/day = 1.03, 95% CI: 0.99-1.07). No significant publication bias was observed. Our findings suggest that long-term cheese consumption was not associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality.

Keywords: cheese; dairy; fermented food; meta-analysis; mortality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of literature search and study selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Meta-analysis of prospective studies on cheese consumption (high vs. low) and risk of all-cause mortality.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Dose-response association between cheese consumption and risk of all-cause mortality, per 50 g/day.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Relative risk with 95% confidence interval for the relationship between cheese consumption and risk of all-cause mortality in a restricted cubic spline random-effects meta-analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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