Association of the live microbe intake from foods with all-cause and cardiovascular disease-specific mortality: a prospective cohort study

Live dietary microbes have been hypothesized to promoting human health. However, there has been lacking perceptions to crystallize nexus between consumption of foods with live microbes and mortality.

To investigate the association of consumption of foods with medium to high amounts of live microbes with all-cause, cancer-specific, and cardiovascular disease (CVD)-specific mortality.

The data were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2018 at baseline linked to the 2019 National Death Index records. Based on consumption of foods that were categorized as either having medium or high microbial content (MedHi foods), participants were classified into three groups. Kaplan–Meier survival curves and multivariable Cox regression models were used to estimate the association of consumption of MedHi foods with mortality. Population-attributable fractions (PAFs) of consumption of MedHi foods in relation to mortality risk were also estimated.

A total of 35,299 adults aged ≥ 20 years were included in this study. During a median follow-up of 9.67 years, compared with adults in G1, those in G3 had 16% (hazard ratio [HR], 0.84; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.77–0.90) reduced risk of all-cause mortality, and 23% (HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.67–0.89) reduced risk of CVD-specific mortality. The PAF of high (G3) vs. intermediate or low consumption of MedHi foods (G1 + G2) with all-cause and CVD-specific mortality was 3.4% and 4.3%, respectively.

Consumption of foods with higher microbial concentrations is associated with a reduced risk of all-cause and CVD-specific mortality in US adults.