The aim of this paper was to assess the association between desalinated seawater and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). We conducted a nested case-control prospective study on a cohort of 7806 subjects who live on an island of China that lacks fresh water. From this cohort, we identified 140 paired CVD cases and matched controls by sex and age during the same period. Questionnaires were used in order to investigate basic sociodemographic information and risk factors for CVDs, and urine samples were collected to measure calcium and magnesium levels. Using these data we developed and tested both univariate and multivariate logistic regression models. We observed no significant differences in risk of CVDs between groups with desalinated seawater and fresh water intake. From multivariate logistic regression, we found that obesity (OR = 5.38, 95% CI: 1.05-27.45), physical activity (OR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.16-0.75), hypertension (OR = 3.61, 95% CI: 1.58-8.25), alcohol consumption (OR = 2.57, 95% CI: 1.02-6.47), and irritability (OR = 4.30, 95% CI: 1.93-9.60) were associated with an increased risk of CVD. In this population, we found no association between desalinated seawater intake and CVDs; the incidence of CVDs was primarily related to lifestyle.
Keywords: cardiovascular disease; desalination; incidence.