Does fish intake lower risk of CV events?

Eating at least 1.5 servings of fish each week does not appear to improve cardiovascular (CV) outcomes, reports a recent study, noting that its potential benefit must not be ruled out completely.

A team of investigators performed a retrospective evaluation of a cohort study that analysed a large primary prevention population to determine the potential benefit of fish intake ≥1.5 serving per week using a multivariate Cox regression model.

Outcomes measured were as follows: all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, major adverse CV events (MACE; composite endpoint of myocardial infarction [MI], stroke, and death from cardiovascular causes), expanded MACE (MACE plus coronary revascularization), total MI, total coronary heart disease (CHD), and total stoke.

The investigators reported the estimates using hazard ratio (HR) with 99 percent confidence interval (CI).

In total, 25,435 patients were included in the analysis. Of these, 11,921 had ≥1.5 fish servings/week, while 13,514 had <1.5 fish servings per week.

Consumption of ≥1.5 fish servings/week showed no independent association with CV outcome reductions, such as CV mortality, MI risk, MACE, expanded MACE outcomes, CHD, or stroke (HR, 0.78, 99 percent CI, 0.57‒1.07).

“Dietary habits with fish consumption have been associated with a lower risk of CV disease, based on heterogenous observational studies,” the investigators said. “Current recommendations suggest eating at least 1–2 fish servings per week for CV prevention.”