title: Cheese Consumption and Risk of All-Cause Mortality: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies.
abstract: The association between cheese consumption and risk for major health endpoints has been investigated in many epidemiologic studies, but findings are inconsistent. As all-cause mortality can be viewed as the final net health effect of dietary intakes, we conducted a meta-analysis to examine the long-term association of cheese consumption with all-cause mortality. Relevant studies were identified by a search of the PubMed database through May 2016. Reference lists from retrieved articles were also reviewed. Summary relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using a random-effects model. Pre-specified stratified and dose-response analyses were also performed. The final analysis included nine prospective cohort studies involving 21,365 deaths. The summary RR of all-cause mortality for the highest compared with the lowest cheese consumption was 1.02 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.06), and little evidence of heterogeneity was observed. The association between cheese consumption and risk of all-cause mortality did not significantly differ by study location, sex, age, number of events, study quality score or baseline diseases excluded. There was no dose-response relationship between cheese consumption and risk of all-cause mortality (RR per 43 g/day = 1.03, 95% CI: 0.99-1.07). No significant publication bias was observed. Our findings suggest that long-term cheese consumption was not associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Soochow University, 199 Renai Road, Suzhou 215123, China. tongxing@suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Soochow University, 199 Renai Road, Suzhou 215123, China. lsguorong@126.com.
authors.forename: Guo-Chong
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Soochow University, 199 Renai Road, Suzhou 215123, China. zzhang@stu.suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Soochow University, 199 Renai Road, Suzhou 215123, China. 20164247021@stu.suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yu-Lu
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Radiation Biology, School of Radiation Medicine and Protection, 199 Renai Road, Suzhou 215123, China. xujiaying@suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jia-Ying
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Soochow University, 199 Renai Road, Suzhou 215123, China. qinliqiang@suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Li-Qiang
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Qin
mesh_terms: D002611:Cheese / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D009026:Mortality; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: cheese; dairy; fermented food; meta-analysis; mortality