Egg consumption associated with all-cause mortality in rural China: a 14-year follow-up study

Dietary recommendations regarding egg intake remain controversial topic for public health. We hypothesized that there was a positive association between egg consumption and all-cause mortality.

To test this hypothesis, we enrolled 9885 adults from a community-based cohort in Anhui Province, China during 2003-05. Egg consumption was assessed by food questionnaire. Stratified analyses were performed for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, smoking, drinking and laboratory tests.

After an average follow-up of 14.1 years, 9444 participants were included for analysis. A total of 814 deaths were recorded. Participants' BMI and lipid profile had no significantly difference between three egg consumption groups. BMI was 21.6±2.7 of the whole population, especially BMI>24 was only 17.3%. A bivariate association of egg consumption >6/week with increased all-cause mortality was observed compared with ≤6/week (RR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.73, P = 0.018). A significant interaction was observed for BMI ≥ 21.2 kg/m2 vs. BMI<21.2 kg/m2 (P for interaction: 0.001). No other significant interactions were found.

In this study, consuming >6 eggs/week increased risk of all-cause mortality, even among lean participants, especially who with BMI ≥ 21.2 kg/m2. Eggs are an easily accessible and constitute an affordable food source in underdeveloped regions. Consuming <6 eggs/week may be the most suitable intake mode.