Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Mar;55(2):547-560.
doi: 10.1007/s00394-015-0871-8. Epub 2015 Mar 12.

Antioxidant vitamin intake and mortality in three Central and Eastern European urban populations: the HAPIEE study

Urszula Stepaniak  1 , Agnieszka Micek  2 , Giuseppe Grosso  3 , Denes Stefler  4 , Roman Topor-Madry  2 , Ruzena Kubinova  5 , Sofia Malyutina  6   7 , Anne Peasey  4 , Hynek Pikhart  4 , Yuri Nikitin  6 , Martin Bobak  4 , Andrzej Pająk  2
Affiliations

Antioxidant vitamin intake and mortality in three Central and Eastern European urban populations: the HAPIEE study

Urszula Stepaniak et al. Eur J Nutr. 2016 Mar.

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess the relationships between individual-level dietary intakes of antioxidant vitamins C, E and beta-carotene with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in three Central and Eastern European (CEE) populations.

Methods: Data from the Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial factors in Eastern Europe cohort study were used. At the baseline survey, between 2002 and 2005, 28,945 men and women aged 45-69 years were examined in Novosibirsk (Russia), Krakow (Poland) and seven Czech towns. Deaths in the cohorts were identified through mortality registers. Cox regression was used to estimate the association between vitamin consumption and all-cause, cardiovascular (CVD) disease and cancer mortality.

Results: In multivariable-adjusted analyses, there were no clear inverse associations between antioxidant vitamin intakes and mortality, although in some groups, several hazard ratios (HRs) were significant. For example, in men, compared with the lowest quintile of vitamin C intake, all-cause mortality in the third and fourth quintiles was lower by 28 % (HR 0.72; 95 % CI 0.61-0.85) and by 20 % (HR 0.80; 95 % CI 0.68-0.95), respectively. CVD mortality was lower by 35 % (HR 0.65; 95 % CI 0.50-0.84) and by 23 % (HR 0.77; 95 % CI 0.59-0.99) in third and fourth quintile of vitamin C intake, respectively. In women, the third and fourth quintiles of dietary intake of vitamin E were associated with reduced risk of all-cause death by 33 % (HR 0.67; 95 % CI 0.53-0.84) and by 23 % (HR 0.77; 95 % CI 0.61-0.97), respectively. Consumption of vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene was not related to CVD mortality in women and to cancer mortality in either gender.

Conclusion: This large prospective cohort study in CEE populations with low prevalence of vitamin supplementation did not find a strong, dose-response evidence for protective effects of antioxidant vitamin intake.

Keywords: Antioxidant vitamin; Cardiovascular; Central and Eastern Europe; Mortality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Vandenheede H, Vikhireva O, Pikhart H, Kubinova R, Malyutina S, Pajak A, et al. Socioeconomic inequalities in all-cause mortality in the Czech Republic, Russia, Poland and Lithuania in the 2000s: findings from the HAPIEE Study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2014;68:297–303. doi: 10.1136/jech-2013-203057. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Boylan S, Welch A, Pikhart H, Malyutina S, Pajak A, Kubinova R, et al. Dietary habits in three Central and Eastern European countries: the HAPIEE study. BMC Public Health. 2009;9:439. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-9-439. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Peng C, Wang X, Chen J, Jiao R, Wang L, Li YM, Zuo Y, Liu Y, Lei L, Ma KY, Huang Y, Chen ZY. Biology of ageing and role of dietary antioxidants. Biomed Res Int. 2014;2014:831–841. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Grosso G, Bei R, Mistretta A, Marventano S, Calabrese G, Masuelli L, Giganti MG, Modesti A, Galvano F, Gazzolo D. Effects of vitamin C on health: a review of evidence. Front Biosci (Landmark Ed) 2013;18:1017–1029. doi: 10.2741/4160. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Reifen R. Vitamin A as an anti-inflammatory agent. Proc Nutr Soc. 2002;61:397–400. doi: 10.1079/PNS2002172. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources