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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Sustainable Diets
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1481363
This article is part of the Research Topic Plant-Based Foods: Harmonizing Health Promotion and Sustainability Strategies from a High-Throughput Perspective View all articles

Plant-based diet and risk of all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Provisionally accepted
Junwen Tan Junwen Tan Shipeng Zhang Shipeng Zhang *Jiang Yanjie Jiang Yanjie Jie Li Jie Li *Chuan Yang Chuan Yang *
  • Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Abstract Objective: A systematic analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between a plant-based diet and all-cause mortality. Methods: The PubMed, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched. Two authors selected English documents from the database. Then the other two authors extracted the data and evaluated the Newcastle‒Ottawa Scale (NOS). This study adhered to the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Project (PRISMA) and the PROSPERO Registry protocols. A mixed–effects model combined maximum adjusted estimates, with heterogeneity measured using the I2 statistic. The sensitivity analysis validated the analysis’s robustness, while publication bias was assessed. Results: The results of the meta-analysis of 14 articles revealed that a plant-based diet (PDI) can reduce cancer mortality (RR=0. 88, [95% CI 0. 79-0. 98], τ2: 0. 02, I2: 84. 71%), cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality (RR=0. 81, [95% CI 0. 76-0. 86], τ2: 0. 00, I2: 49. 25%) and mortality (RR=0. 84, [95% CI 0. 79-0. 89], τ2: 0. 01, I2: 81. 99%) risk. Adherence to a healthy plant-based diet (hPDI) was negatively correlated with cancer mortality (RR=0. 91, [95% CI 0. 83-0. 99], τ2:0. 01, I2:85. 61%), CVD mortality (RR=0. 85, [95% CI 0. 77-0. 94], τ2: 0. 02, I2: 85. 13%) and mortality (RR=0. 85, [95% CI 0. 80-0. 90], τ2: 0. 01, I2: 89. 83%). An unhealthy plant-based diet (uPDI) was positively correlated with CVD mortality (RR=1. 19, [95% CI 1. 07-1. 32], τ2: 0. 02, I2: 80. 03%) and mortality (RR=1. 18, [95% CI 1. 09-1. 27], τ2: 0. 01, I2: 89. 97%) and had a certain correlation with cancer mortality (RR=1. 10, [95% CI 0. 97-1. 26], τ2: 0. 03, I2: 93. 11%). Sensitivity analysis showed no contradictory results. Conclusions: The hPDI was negatively associated with all-cause mortality, and the uPDI was positively associated with all-cause mortality.

    Keywords: Plant-based diet, Meta-analysis, Cancer mortality, CVD mortality, All-cause mortality

    Received: 15 Aug 2024; Accepted: 07 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tan, Zhang, Yanjie, Li and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Shipeng Zhang, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
    Jie Li, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
    Chuan Yang, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China

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