Associations of daily diet-related greenhouse gas emissions with the incidence and mortality of chronic diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological studies
- Author:
Jee Yeon HONG
1
;
Young Jun KIM
;
Sanghyuk BAE
;
Mi Kyung KIM
Author Information
- Publication Type:Systematic Review
- From:Epidemiology and Health 2023;45(1):e2023011-
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:0
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVES:Although the entire process extending from food production to dietary consumption makes a large contribution to total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, little and inconsistent evidence exists on the epidemiological associations of daily diet-related GHG emissions with chronic disease risk or all-cause mortality. This systematic review and meta-analysis explored the observational epidemiological relationship between daily diet-related GHG emissions and health outcomes, including the risk of chronic diseases and all-cause mortality.
METHODS:Original articles published in English until May 2022 were identified by searching PubMed, Ovid-Embase, Web of Science, CINAHL, and Google Scholar. The extracted data were pooled using both fixed-effects and random-effects meta-analyses and presented as hazard and risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
RESULTS:In total, 7 cohort studies (21 study arms) were included for qualitative synthesis and meta-analysis. The GHG emissions of dietary consumption showed a significant positive association with the risk of chronic disease incidence and mortality in both fixed-effects and random-effects models (fixed: RR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.05; random: RR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.06). This positive association was robust regardless of how daily diet-related GHG emissions were grouped. More strongly animal- based diets showed higher GHG emissions. However, there were only a few studies on specific chronic diseases, and the subgroup analysis showed insignificant results. There was no evidence of publication bias among the studies (Egger test: p=0.79).
CONCLUSIONS:A higher GHG-emission diet was found to be associated with a greater risk of all-cause mortality.
