Egg consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: findings from 3 large US cohort studies of men and women and a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies

Jean-Philippe Drouin-Chartier 1 2 3 4, Amanda L Schwab 1, Siyu Chen 1, Yanping Li 1, Frank M Sacks 1 5, Bernard Rosner 1 5 6, JoAnn E Manson 5 7 8, Walter C Willett 1 5 8, Meir J Stampfer 1 5 8, Frank B Hu 1 5 8, Shilpa N Bhupathiraju 1 5

Main idea: Results from the updated meta-analysis show no overall association between moderate egg consumption and risk of T2D.

Abstract

Background: Whether egg consumption is associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) remains unsettled.

Objectives: We evaluated the association between egg consumption and T2D risk in 3 large US prospective cohorts, and performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.

Methods: We followed 82,750 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS; 1980-2012), 89,636 women from the NHS II (1991-2017), and 41,412 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS; 1986-2016) who were free of T2D, cardiovascular disease, and cancer at baseline. Egg consumption was assessed every 2-4 y using a validated FFQ. We used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate HRs and 95% CIs.

Results: During a total of 5,529,959 person-years of follow-up, we documented 20,514 incident cases of T2D in the NHS, NHS II, and HPFS. Each 1 egg/d increase was associated with a 14% higher T2d risk. There were, however, significant differences by geographic region (P for interaction = 0.01), with higher risk in the US but not among European or Asian studies. The pooled multivariable model adjusted for updated BMI, lifestyle, and dietary confounders found no significant differences between studies.

Source NIH