EPIC-Oxford: benefits and risks of plant-based diets

EPIC-Oxford：植物性饮食的好处和风险

• 批准号: MR/Y013662/1
• 负责人: Tim Key
• 金额: $ 210.69万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FY013662%2F1
• 关键词: EPIC; Oxford; benefits; risks; plant

Plant-based diets, which include little or no food from animal sources, might have benefits for both health and the environment. The available evidence supports substantial advantages for such diets in reducing diet-related greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts, but the evidence for health is sparse and there may be both benefits and risks. For example, the low intakes of saturated fat and high intakes of fibre characteristic of plant-based diets may reduce risks for some cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases, but the low intakes of high quality protein, some vitamins and calcium might increase risks for conditions such as some types of stroke, and bone fractures. To address this gap in the evidence we aim to enhance and extend a mature longitudinal population study in the UK to establish the world's most informative resource for studying the health benefits and risks of plant-based diets. The EPIC-Oxford cohort, which has 65,000 participants living throughout the UK, was initiated 30 years ago with recruitment targeted to oversample people following vegetarian diets, and 50% of the participants do not eat meat. This resource has detailed information on diet, a large biobank (collection of stored blood samples), and comprehensive linkage to NHS datasets on all hospital admissions, cancer diagnoses and deaths, making it unique in the world for research on the long-term health impacts of plant-based diets. We aim to enhance the existing resource by a resurvey of all surviving participants, and to extend it by recruitment of 80,000 new participants to increase statistical power and the number of people following close to 100% plant-based diets (i.e. vegan, or very low intakes of any animal products), as well as to improve the ethnic diversity of the resource. We will also extend the biobank, collecting blood samples from a further 5,000 participants selected with regard to diet group, age, gender and ethnicity, to enable further research on the impacts of plant-based diets on the functioning of the body. We have completed a pilot study recruiting 6,000 new participants, 3,000 plant-based, which has demonstrated the success and cost-effectiveness of our internet-based recruitment method, and allowed us to refine our dietary questionnaire and obtain up-to-date information on the food and nutrient intakes of these people. To make the proposed new EPIC-Oxford resource widely accessible, we will transfer the data we collect on diet and lifestyle to the UK Longitudinal Linkage Consortium (UK LLC) trusted research environment. The UK LLC will then extend the linkage to all NHS datasets providing details of diseases and conditions diagnosed in participants throughout the UK, and manage access to the resource for analyses by other researchers. The research made possible by creating this resource will provide, for the first time, robust evidence on the long-term benefits and risks of plant-based diets, and on whether any risks identified can be mitigated.

以植物为基础的饮食，包括很少或没有动物来源的食物，可能对健康和环境都有好处。现有的证据支持这种饮食在减少与饮食有关的温室气体排放和其他环境影响方面的巨大优势，但健康方面的证据很少，可能既有好处也有风险。例如，植物性饮食中饱和脂肪的低摄入量和纤维的高摄入量可能会降低某些心血管和胃肠道疾病的风险，但高质量蛋白质，某些维生素和钙的低摄入量可能会增加某些类型的中风和骨折等疾病的风险。为了解决证据中的这一差距，我们的目标是加强和扩展英国成熟的纵向人口研究，以建立世界上最翔实的资源，用于研究植物性饮食的健康益处和风险。EPIC-Oxford队列有65，000名参与者生活在英国各地，于30年前启动，招募目标是对素食者进行过度抽样，其中50%的参与者不吃肉。该资源有关于饮食的详细信息，一个大型生物库（收集储存的血液样本），以及与所有住院，癌症诊断和死亡的NHS数据集的全面联系，使其成为世界上唯一的植物性饮食长期健康影响的研究。我们的目标是通过重新调查所有幸存的参与者来加强现有的资源，并通过招募80，000名新参与者来扩大它，以增加统计能力和接近100%植物性饮食的人数（即纯素，或任何动物产品的摄入量非常低），以及改善资源的种族多样性。我们还将扩大生物库，从另外5 000名根据饮食组、年龄、性别和种族挑选的参与者中收集血液样本，以便进一步研究植物性饮食对身体功能的影响。我们已经完成了一项试点研究，招募了6,000名新参与者，其中3,000名是植物性的，这证明了我们基于互联网的招募方法的成功和成本效益，并使我们能够改进我们的饮食问卷，并获得有关这些人的食物和营养摄入量的最新信息。为了使拟议中的新EPIC-Oxford资源能够被广泛访问，我们将把我们收集的关于饮食和生活方式的数据转移到英国纵向联系联盟（UK LLC）信任的研究环境中。然后，英国有限责任公司将把链接扩展到所有NHS数据集，提供英国各地参与者诊断的疾病和病症的详细信息，并管理对资源的访问，以便其他研究人员进行分析。通过创建这一资源而实现的研究将首次提供关于植物性饮食的长期益处和风险的有力证据，以及是否可以减轻任何已确定的风险。