Association Between Egg Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

ABSTRACT Introduction Considerable controversy remains on the relationship between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease risk. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to explore the association between egg consumption and overall cardiovascular disease events. Methods We systematically searched Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, Ovid Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Scopus, and Web of Science from database inception from 1966 through January 2020 for observational studies that reported the association between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease events. Two investigators independently reviewed data. Conflicts were resolved through consensus. Random-effects meta-analyses were used. Sources of heterogeneity were analyzed. Results We identified 23 prospective studies with a median follow-up of 12.28 years. A total of 1,415,839 individuals with a total of 123,660 cases and 157,324 cardiovascular disease events were included. Compared to the consumption of no or 1 egg/day, higher egg consumption (more than 1 egg/day) was not associated with significantly increased risk of overall cardiovascular disease events (pooled hazard ratios, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.93-1.06; p Conclusions Our analysis suggests that higher consumption of eggs (more than 1 egg/day) was not associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but associated with a significant reduction in risk of coronary artery disease.