title: Egg consumption and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate and quantify the potential dose-response association between egg consumption and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke.
  
  
  METHODS
  Dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed and Embase prior to June 2012 and references of relevant original papers and review articles.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective cohort studies with relative risks and 95% confidence intervals of coronary heart disease or stroke for three or more categories of egg consumption.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eight articles with 17 reports (nine for coronary heart disease, eight for stroke) were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis (3,081,269 person years and 5847 incident cases for coronary heart disease, and 4,148,095 person years and 7579 incident cases for stroke). No evidence of a curve linear association was seen between egg consumption and risk of coronary heart disease or stroke (P=0.67 and P=0.27 for non-linearity, respectively). The summary relative risk of coronary heart disease for an increase of one egg consumed per day was 0.99 (95% confidence interval 0.85 to 1.15; P=0.88 for linear trend) without heterogeneity among studies (P=0.97, I(2)=0%). For stroke, the combined relative risk for an increase of one egg consumed per day was 0.91 (0.81 to 1.02; P=0.10 for linear trend) without heterogeneity among studies (P=0.46, I(2)=0%). In a subgroup analysis of diabetic populations, the relative risk of coronary heart disease comparing the highest with the lowest egg consumption was 1.54 (1.14 to 2.09; P=0.01). In addition, people with higher egg consumption had a 25% (0.57 to 0.99; P=0.04) lower risk of developing hemorrhagic stroke.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Higher consumption of eggs (up to one egg per day) is not associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease or stroke. The increased risk of coronary heart disease among diabetic patients and reduced risk of hemorrhagic stroke associated with higher egg consumption in subgroup analyses warrant further studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Hubei Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 430030 Wuhan, PR China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Tingting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Yadong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Miao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Zhilei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sands
authors.forename: Frank B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Liegang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002791:Cholesterol, Dietary / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000209:etiology*; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus; D004531:Eggs; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D020521:Stroke / Q000209:etiology*
chemical_list: D002791:Cholesterol, Dietary