title: Consumption of dairy products and death from cardiovascular disease in the Japanese general population: the NIPPON DATA80.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent Western studies show an inverse association between milk and dairy product intake and cardiovascular disease (CVD). We studied the association between consumption of milk and dairy products and CVD death in Japan.
  
  
  METHODS
  Men and women aged 30 years or older were followed for 24 years. All had participated in a national nutrition survey in 300 health districts throughout Japan in 1980. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess mortality risk according to tertiles of milk and dairy product intake, with the high consumption group as reference. Hazard ratios (HRs) per 100-g/day increase in consumption were also estimated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the 24-year follow-up period, there were 893 CVD deaths, 174 deaths from coronary heart disease (CHD), and 417 stroke deaths among 9243 participants. For women, the HRs for death from CVD, CHD, and stroke in the low consumption group were 1.27 (95% CI: 0.99-1.58; P for trend = 0.045), 1.67 (0.99-2.80; P = 0.02), and 1.34 (0.94-1.90; P = 0.08), respectively, after adjustment for age, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol drinking habits, history of diabetes, use of antihypertensives, work category, and total energy intake. With each 100-g/day increase in consumption of milk and dairy products, HRs tended to decrease for deaths from CVD (HR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.74-0.99), CHD (0.73; 0.52-1.03), and stroke (0.81; 0.65-1.01) in women. No significant association was observed in men.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Consumption of milk and dairy products was inversely associated with CVD death among women in Japan.
authors.affiliation: Hamamatsu University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Imako
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ojima
authors.forename: Mieko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayasaka
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hozawa
authors.forename: Shigeyuki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saitoh
authors.forename: Hirofumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohnishi
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Akasaka
authors.forename: Takehito
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hayakawa
authors.forename: Yoshitaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Murakami
authors.forename: Nagako
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Okuda
authors.forename: Katsuyuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miura
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okayama
authors.forename: Hirotsugu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ueshima
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D003611:Dairy Products; D004032:Diet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008892:Milk; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017678:Sex Distribution