The EPIC-Oxford study, which involved almost 55,000 British people, concluded: “Non–meat eaters, especially vegans, had higher risks of either total or some site-specific fractures, particularly hip fractures.
“This is the first prospective study of diet group with both total and multiple specific fracture sites in vegetarians and vegans, and the findings suggest that bone health in vegans requires further research.”
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Participants were categorized into four diet groups composed of 29,380 meat eaters, 8,037 fish eaters, 15,499 vegetarians and 1,982 vegans.
The research published on Monday in BMC Medicine journal asked participants to complete a questionnaire that asked about diet, socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle, and medical history. The health of participants was then linked to their medical record from the U.K.’s National Health Service.
The results showed over an average of 17.6 years of follow-up, researchers observed 3,941 cases of total fractures.
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The report said: “Compared with meat eaters, vegetarians
and vegans had higher risks of total fractures after adjustment for confounders.
Overall, vegans in this study had higher risks of total and some site-specific
fractures (hip, leg, vertebra) than meat eaters.
“The strongest associations were observed for hip
fractures, for which fish eaters, vegetarians, and vegans all had higher risks.
“These risk differences might be partially explained by the lower average BMI [body-mass index], and lower average intakes of calcium and protein in the non-meat eaters. However, because the differences remained, especially in vegans, after accounting for these factors, other unaccounted for factors may be important.”
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By
Rupert Steiner
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