Associations of cereal grains intake with cardiovascular disease and mortality across 21 countries in prospective urban and rural epidemiology study: Prospective cohort study

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the association between intakes of refined grains, whole grains, and white rice with cardiovascular disease, total mortality, blood lipids, and blood pressure in the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. Design Prospective cohort study. setting PURE study in 21 countries. ParticiPants 148 858 participants with median follow-up of 9.5 years. exPOsures Country specific validated food frequency questionnaires were used to assess intakes of refined grains, whole grains, and white rice. Main OutcOMe Measure Composite of mortality or major cardiovascular events (defined as death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, stroke, or heart failure). Hazard ratios were estimated for associations of grain intakes with mortality, major cardiovascular events, and their composite by using multivariable Cox frailty models with random intercepts to account for clustering by centre. results Analyses were based on 137 130 participants after exclusion of those with baseline cardiovascular disease. During follow-up, 9.2% (n=12 668) of these participants had a composite outcome event.