Association of Eating Window With Mortality Among US Adults: Insights From a Nationally Representative Study

Area of Science:

• Nutrition Science
• Epidemiology
• Public Health

Background:

• Time-based diets, such as intermittent fasting, are increasingly popular for potential health benefits.
• However, robust evidence on their long-term impact on human longevity, particularly mortality risk, is limited.
• Most existing data comes from short-term human trials and animal studies, necessitating further investigation in diverse populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between the daily eating window duration and all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality among a large cohort of U.S. adults.
• To identify optimal eating window durations linked to reduced mortality risk.
• To explore potential variations in these associations across different demographic subgroups.

Main Methods:

• A prospective cohort study utilizing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2018, linked to mortality records through December 2019.
• The study included 33,052 U.S. adults (aged ≥20 years) with two 24-hour dietary recalls.
• Eating window was defined as the time between the first and last calorie-containing food/beverage consumption; analyses used Cox regression with Restricted Cubic Splines (RCS) adjusted for numerous covariates.

Main Results:

• A U-shaped association was observed between eating window duration and all-cause mortality, with the lowest risk identified for windows around 11-12 hours per day (p=0.004).
• Shorter eating windows (≤8 hours) were linked to a ≥30% increase in all-cause mortality and >50% increase in cardiovascular mortality, particularly in older adults, men, and White individuals.
• Longer eating windows (≥15 hours) were associated with a 25% higher risk of all-cause mortality.

Conclusions:

• A moderate eating window of approximately 11-12 hours daily appears to be associated with the lowest risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.
• Both significantly restricted (<8 hours) and extended (≥15 hours) eating windows are linked to increased mortality risks.
• These findings underscore the importance of eating window timing in relation to mortality and suggest that personalized dietary guidance may be beneficial, considering demographic variations.