Blood n-3 fatty acid levels and total and cause-specific mortality from 17 prospective studies.

Department of Internal Medicine, Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota, Sioux Falls, SD, USA. wsh@faresinst.com. The Fatty Acid Research Institute, Sioux Falls, SD, USA. wsh@faresinst.com. The Fatty Acid Research Institute, Sioux Falls, SD, USA. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Dordt University, Sioux Center, IA, USA. MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, UK. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. The George Institute for Global Health and the Faculty of Medicine, University New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. Cancer Epidemiology Division, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Centre D'excellence Sur le Vieillissement de Québec, CIUSSS-CN, Quebec, QC, Canada. Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital; and Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan. Division of Human Nutrition and Health, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. Cancer Control Research, BC Cancer Agency; and School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Bordeaux Population Health Research Centre, INSERM, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France. USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA. Freidman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA. Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam and Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan. Icelandic Heart Association, Kopavogur, Iceland. Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland. Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College, London, UK. VITAM Research Centers, Laval University, Quebec, QC, Canada. School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan. Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Department of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA. Department of Epidemiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA. Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, USA. Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute & Barcelona βeta Brain Research Center, Pasqual Maragall Foundation, Barcelona, Spain. Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA. School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. The New York Academy of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.

Nature communications. 2021;(1):2329

Abstract

The health effects of omega-3 fatty acids have been controversial. Here we report the results of a de novo pooled analysis conducted with data from 17 prospective cohort studies examining the associations between blood omega-3 fatty acid levels and risk for all-cause mortality. Over a median of 16 years of follow-up, 15,720 deaths occurred among 42,466 individuals. We found that, after multivariable adjustment for relevant risk factors, risk for death from all causes was significantly lower (by 15-18%, at least p < 0.003) in the highest vs the lowest quintile for circulating long chain (20-22 carbon) omega-3 fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic, docosapentaenoic, and docosahexaenoic acids). Similar relationships were seen for death from cardiovascular disease, cancer and other causes. No associations were seen with the 18-carbon omega-3, alpha-linolenic acid. These findings suggest that higher circulating levels of marine n-3 PUFA are associated with a lower risk of premature death.

Methodological quality

Publication Type : Meta-Analysis

Metadata

MeSH terms : Fatty Acids, Omega-3