Association of red and processed meat consumption with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in participants with and without obesity: A prospective cohort study

Objective: There is increasing evidence that red and processed meat consumption is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease. However, little literature reported the association among people with obesity versus those without obesity. We sought to investigate this using the UK Biobank data. Methods: In this large prospective population-based cohort study, the red and processed meat consumption was assessed through the UK Biobank touch-screen questionnaire at baseline. The estimated hazards ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained from the Cox proportional hazard models to assess the association between red and processed meat consumption and the risk of CV death, cerebrovascular, and ischemic heart diseases in participants with and without obesity. Results: Of 428,070 participants, 100,175 (23.4%) were obese with the mean age of 56 (SD: 7.9) years old and 54% were female. Participants without obesity, the mean age was 56 (SD: 5.2) years old and 55% were female. The overall median follow-up was 7.2 (IQR: 6.5–7.8) years. red and processed meat consumption had increased risk of CV death (HR (95%CI):1.04 (1.01–1.08) per week serve for participants with obesity and 1.04 (1.02–1.07) for those without obesity) after adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, education, smoking and alcohol status and overall health. The moderate positive association between red and processed meat consumption and ischemic heart disease was only observed in participants without obesity (HR (95%CI): 1.15 (1.00–1.31) for the highest versus lowest terciles of red and processed meat consumption). No association was found with cerebrovascular disease in the participants regardless of obesity. Conclusions: Consumption frequency of red and processed meat is associated with higher risk of CV death regardless of obesity. The risk of ischemic heart disease associated with red and processed meat consumption may be higher in participants without obesity. Further studies are needed to understand the full extent of the mechanism of the association.