Association Between Dairy and Ischemic Heart Disease Among Chinese Adult: A Prospective Study in Qingdao

Abstract Background Previous studies linking dairy consumption with ischemic heart disease (IHD) are almost from western countries, few from China. The present study was to explore the relationship between dairy consumption and IHD among Chinese adults. Methods The data for the present study was from the prospective cohort study of China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) in Qingdao, a total of 33,355 participants in the present study. An interviewer-administered laptop-based questionnaire was used to collect information on the consumption frequency of dairy, incident IHD cases were identified through Disease Surveillance Point System (DSPs) and the new national health insurance databases. Cox regression analyses were performed to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and confidence interval (CI) for the relationship between the incidence of IHD and dairy consumption. Results The baseline survey reported that 32.4% of males and 34.6% of females consumed dairy regularly (i.e. ≥4 days/week). Over an average of 9.2 years follow-up, 2,712 new-onset IHD were documented. Compared with participants who never or rarely consume dairy, the hazard ratio (HR) of consumed dairy regularly was 0.85(0.73-0.98) for males (P<0.05), while no significant benefits were identified for females. Conclusions In Chinese adults, regular dairy consumption had an inverse association to the onset of IHD only for males, while no similar association for females.