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Dietary fibre intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: systematic review and meta-analysis

BMJ 2013 dose–response meta-analysis of 22 prospective cohort publications (≥3-year follow-up) finds each 7 g/day higher total dietary fibre associated with RR 0.91 for incident cardiovascular disease and RR 0.91 for coronary heart disease, with heterogeneity present and stronger signals for cereal, vegetable, and insoluble fibre subtypes in pooled models.

Design

  • Study type: systematic review + dose–response meta-analysis of prospective cohorts
  • Corpus: 22 cohort publications reporting total fibre, fibre subtypes, or food-source fibre vs CVD / CHD events (1990–Aug 2013)
  • Model: random-effects pooling

Headline dose–response (abstract)

  • CVD: RR 0.91 per +7 g/day total dietary fibre (95% CI 0.88–0.94)
  • CHD: RR 0.91 per +7 g/day (95% CI 0.87–0.94)
  • Heterogeneity: I² ≈ 45% (CVD) and ≈ 33% (CHD) in abstract summary
  • Subtype / source signals: insoluble fibre and fibre from cereal and vegetable sources inversely associated with CHD and CVD; fruit fibre inversely associated with CVD in pooled framing

Evidence hygiene

Observational diet–disease links—residual confounding (overall diet quality, smoking, adiposity) remains plausible despite adjustment narratives.

Publication

Threapleton DE, Greenwood DC, Evans CE, et al. BMJ. 2013 Dec 19;347:f6879. doi: 10.1136/bmj.f6879. PMID 24355537.

Outcomes

  • All-Cause Mortality Risk
    Events: /
  • All-Cause Mortality Risk
    Events: /
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