Association between dietary patterns and coronary heart disease: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies

The associations of dietary patterns with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk remain unclear. Thereby, a meta-analysis was conducted to examine potential relations between dietary patterns and CHD. PubMed and EMBASE databases were searched up to March 2014 for eligible prospective cohort studies regarding the relationships between common dietary patterns and CHD. Random-effects models were applied to calculate the summary relative risk estimates (SRRE) for the highest versus the lowest category of dietary pattern. Sensitivity analyses were conducted and publication bias was assessed using Begg or Egger's tests. Twelve prospective cohort studies were included involving 409,780 participants and 6298 CHD cases. There was an inverse association between prudent/healthy dietary pattern and CHD risk (SRRE = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.74-0.87, P-value for heterogeneity = 0.497, I(2) = 0%). Furthermore, no significant association was observed between western/unhealthy dietary pattern and risk of CHD (SRRE = 1.05, 95% CI: 0.86-1.27, P-value for heterogeneity = 0.007, I(2) = 61.9%). However, increased risk was detected between western/unhealthy dietary pattern and CHD in the United States (USA) (SRRE = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.15-1.82, P-value for heterogeneity = 0.930, I(2) = 0%). In conclusion, our analysis provides evidence of an inverse association between prudent/healthy dietary pattern and CHD risk, and suggests null association between western/unhealthy dietary pattern and CHD. However, greater adherence to western/unhealthy pattern possibily increases by 45% the risk of CHD in USA. Further efforts are warranted to confirm these findings and clarify the role of dietary patterns and CHD risk.