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 Aug 1:5:2048004016661435.
doi: 10.1177/2048004016661435. eCollection 2016 Jan-Dec.

The effect of green leafy and cruciferous vegetable intake on the incidence of cardiovascular disease: A meta-analysis

Richard Lee Pollock  1
Affiliations

The effect of green leafy and cruciferous vegetable intake on the incidence of cardiovascular disease: A meta-analysis

Richard Lee Pollock. JRSM Cardiovasc Dis. .

Abstract

Does the consumption of green leafy vegetables including cruciferous vegetables significantly reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease? This research question was answered via employing the statistical methods of meta-analysis by synthesizing relevant worldwide studies that address the association between the consumption of green leafy vegetables and risk of incidence of said diseases. All meta-analysis calculations included determination of effect sizes of relative risk, and their respective 95% confidence intervals, heterogeneity of the studies, relative weights for each study, and significance (p) for each study. Eight studies met the inclusion criteria, which investigated the relationship between the incidences of total cardiovascular disease with the intake of green leafy vegetables. The overall effect size (random effect model) was: RR = 0.842 (95% CI = 0.753 to 0.941), p = 0.002, which indicates a significant 15.8% reduced incidence of cardiovascular disease.

Keywords: Forest plot; Green leafy vegetables; cardiovascular disease; cruciferous vegetables; effect size; meta-analysis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Theoretical assumptions showing relations between intake levels of GLV, intervening variables, and incidence of disease. GLV: green leafy vegetables; CVD: cardiovascular disease.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Meta-analysis’ Forest plot of GLV intake on CVD incidence.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
GLV intake on CVD—Publication bias funnel plot.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Joshipura KJ, Hu FB, Manson JE, et al. The effect of fruit & vegetable intake on risk for coronary heart disease. Ann Intern Med 2001; 134: 1106–1114. - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. Worldwide death rates from cardiovascular disease, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs317/en/ (2014, accessed 19 April 2014).
    1. Bendinelli B, Masala G, Saieva C, et al. Fruit, vegetable, and olive oil and risk of coronary heart disease in Italian women: the EPICOR study. Am J Clin Nutr 2011; 93: 275–283. - PubMed
    1. Shachar M. Meta-analysis: the preferred method of choice for the assessment of distance learning quality factors. Int Rev Res Open Dist Learn 2008; 9: 1–15.
    1. Borenstein M, Hedges LV, Higgins JP, et al. Introduction to meta-analysis (statistics in practice). 1st ed. The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley Publications, 2009.

LinkOut - more resources