Ultra-processed food intake and incident venous thromboembolism risk: Prospective cohort study

Shuai Yuan; Jie Chen; Tian Fu; Xue Li; Maria Bruzelius; Agneta Åkesson; Susanna C Larsson

doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2023.06.016

Ultra-processed food intake and incident venous thromboembolism risk: Prospective cohort study

Clin Nutr. 2023 Aug;42(8):1268-1275. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2023.06.016. Epub 2023 Jun 15.

Authors

Shuai Yuan¹, Jie Chen², Tian Fu³, Xue Li², Maria Bruzelius⁴, Agneta Åkesson⁵, Susanna C Larsson⁶

Affiliations

¹ Unit of Cardiovascular and Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: shuai.yuan@ki.se.
² Department of Big Data in Health Science School of Public Health, Center of Clinical Big Data and Analytics of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
³ Department of Gastroenterology, Central South University, Changsha, China.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Coagulation Unit, Department of Hematology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁵ Unit of Cardiovascular and Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁶ Unit of Cardiovascular and Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Unit of Medical Epidemiology, Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: susanna.larsson@ki.se.

PMID: 37348154
DOI: 10.1016/j.clnu.2023.06.016

Abstract

Background & aims: Ultra-processed food (UPF) intake has been associated with multiple health outcomes, but data on the association between UPF intake and venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk are lacking. We conducted this study to examine the association between UPF intake and the risk of incident VTE.

Methods: This prospective cohort study was based on 186,323 participants free of baseline VTE from the UK Biobank. UPF intake was assessed by 24-h recall questionnaires. Data on incident VTE came from the nationwide inpatient and primary care datasets and the death registry. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the association between UPF intake and incident VTE risk. Multiplicative interactions and stratified analyses by age, sex, and body mass index were performed.

Results: During a 10.5-year (median) follow-up, 4235 incident VTE cases were diagnosed. After adjusting for covariates, the hazard ratio of VTE among individuals with the highest quintile of UPF intake was 1.05 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.94, 1.17) for UPF in servings, 1.12 (95% CI 1.01, 1.24) in grams, 1.10 (95% CI 1.00, 1.22) in grams %, 1.21 (95% CI 1.10, 1.33) in energy, and 1.15 (95% CI 1.05, 1.27) in energy % compared to those in the lowest quintile. Age, sex, and body mass index did not modify the associations (P_interaction > 0.05).

Conclusions: Higher UPF intake was associated with a moderately increased risk of VTE.

Keywords: Cohort; Deep vein thrombosis; Pulmonary embolism; Ultra-processed food; Venous thromboembolism.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Diet
Food, Processed
Humans
Prospective Studies
Risk Factors
Venous Thromboembolism* / complications
Venous Thromboembolism* / etiology