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

Written By : Dr. Shravani Dali |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2023-03-13T20:00:31+05:30 | Updated On 13 March 2023 8:00 PM IST

According to a new US study, adults 40 years of age and older with shorter time intervals of 4.5 hours or fewer between meals are associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality compared with longer intervals.

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.

A total of 24,011 adults (aged ≥40 years) who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2014 were included in this study. Eating behaviors were assessed using 24-hour recall. Death and underlying causes of death were ascertained by linkage to death records through December 31, 2015. The outcomes were all-cause and CVD mortality. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of all-cause and CVD mortality.

Results:

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.

In this large, prospective study of US adults aged 40 years or older, eating one meal per day was associated with an increased risk of all-cause and CVD mortality. Skipping breakfast was associated with increased risk of CVD mortality, whereas skipping lunch or dinner was associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality. Among participant with three meals per day, a meal interval of ≤4.5 hours in two adjacent meals was associated with higher all-cause mortality.

Reference:

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.

Keywords:

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.

Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and DieteticsMeal skippingMeal intervalsAll-cause mortalityCardiovascular diseasemortalityUnited States adults

Source : Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Dr. Shravani Dali

Dr. Shravani Dali has completed her BDS from Pravara institute of medical sciences, loni. Following which she extensively worked in the healthcare sector for 2+ years. She has been actively involved in writing blogs in field of health and wellness. Currently she is pursuing her Masters of public health-health administration from Tata institute of social sciences. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in.

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751