Meal Skipping and Shorter Meal Intervals may ncrease Risk of All-Cause and CVD Mortality

Previous dietary studies and current dietary guidelines have mainly focused on dietary intake and food patterns. Little is known about the association between eating behaviors such as meal frequency, skipping and intervals, and mortality. The objective was to examine the associations of meal frequency, skipping, and intervals with all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.

• During 185,398 person-years of follow-up period, 4,175 deaths occurred, including 878 cardiovascular deaths.

• Most participants ate three meals per day.

• Compared with participants eating three meals per day, the multivariable-adjusted HRs for participants eating one meal per day were 1.30 for all-cause mortality, and 1.83 for CVD mortality.

• Participants who skipped breakfast have multivariable-adjusted HRs 1.40 for CVD mortality compared with those who did not.

• The multivariable-adjusted HRs for all-cause mortality were 1.12 for skipping lunch and 1.16 for skipping dinner compared with those who did not.

• Among participants eating three meals per day, the multivariable-adjusted HR for participants with an average interval of ≤4.5 hours in two adjacent meals was 1.17 for all-cause mortality, comparing with those having a meal interval of 4.6 to 5.5 hours.

Yangbo Sun, Shuang Rong, Buyun Liu, Yang Du, Yuxiao Wu, Liangkai Chen, Qian Xiao, Linda Snetselaar, Robert Wallace, Wei Bao. Meal Skipping and Shorter Meal Intervals Are Associated with Increased Risk of All-Cause and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality among US Adults, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2022, ISSN 2212-2672. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2022.08.119.

Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Yangbo Sun, Shuang Rong, Buyun Liu, Yang Du, Yuxiao Wu, Liangkai Chen, Qian Xiao, Linda Snetselaar, Robert Wallace, Wei Bao, Meal Skipping, Shorter Meal, Intervals, Associated, Increased, Risk, All-Cause, and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality, US Adults.