Abstract
BACKGROUND: We aimed to examine the association between chocolate intake and the risk of incident heart failure in a UK general population. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to quantify this association.
METHODS AND RESULTS: We used data from a prospective population-based study, the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC)-Norfolk cohort. Chocolate intake was quantified based on a food frequency questionnaire obtained at baseline (1993-1997) and incident heart failure was ascertained up to March 2009. We supplemented the primary data with a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies which evaluated risk of incident heart failure with chocolate consumption. A total of 20,922 participants (53% women; mean age 58 ± 9 years) were included of whom 1101 developed heart failure during the follow up (mean 12.5 ± 2.7 years, total person years 262,291 years). After adjusting for lifestyle and dietary factors, we found 19% relative reduction in heart failure incidence in the top (up to 100 g/d) compared to the bottom quintile of chocolate consumption (HR 0.81 95%CI 0.66-0.98) but the results were no longer significant after controlling for comorbidities (HR 0.87 95%CI 0.71-1.06). Additional adjustment for potential mediators did not attenuate the results further. We identified five relevant studies including the current study (N = 75,408). The pooled results showed non-significant 19% relative risk reduction of heart failure incidence with higher chocolate consumption (HR 0.81 95%CI 0.66-1.01).
CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that higher chocolate intake is not associated with subsequent incident heart failure.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 722-734 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Nutrition, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Diseases: NMCD |
Volume | 26 |
Issue number | 8 |
Early online date | 28 Jan 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Aug 2016 |
Bibliographical note
AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to thank the participants of the EPIC-Norfolk cohort. We thank the nutritionist team and data management team of the EPIC-Norfolk cohort. The EPIC-Norfolk study was supported by grants from the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK. Funders had no role in study design or interpretation of the findings.
Keywords
- heart failure
- chocolate
- cocoa
- epidemiology
- meta-analysis
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Phyo Myint, Clinical Chair in Medicine of Old Age
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition, Aberdeen Cardiovascular and Diabetes Centre
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition, Applied Health Sciences - Chair in Old Age Medicine (Clinical)
- Institute of Applied Health Sciences
Person: Clinical Academic