ArticleThe lancet. Healthy longevity2025
Plant-based dietary patterns and age-specific risk of multimorbidity of cancer and cardiometabolic diseases: a prospective analysis.
Article in The lancet. Healthy longevity, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Healthful and unhealthful plant-based diets and site-specific cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.European journal of nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Prophylactic Effects of Dietary Patterns and Indexes, Nutrition and Lifestyle on Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Annals of surgical oncology · 2026Review
- Diet quality and progression from health to chronic disease, multimorbidity and mortality in the UK Biobank.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Association of plant-based diet with cardiometabolic multimorbidity trajectory: A prospective study in UK Biobank.The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2026Article
- Article
- Association between plant-based diet indices and depressive symptoms among South Korean adults: a cross-sectional study using the 2014 and 2016 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.Clinical nutrition research · 2026Article
- Gut Microbiome-Associated Effects of Plant-Based Diets on Glucose Homeostasis, Body Composition, and Cognitive Function: A Scoping Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- Bio-Inspired Artificial Intelligence Multimorbidity Score for Human-Machine Clinical Risk Stratification.Cyborg and bionic systems (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Association of healthy plant-based diet-lifestyle score with obesity-related cancer incidence and mortality: a prospective cohort study in the UK Biobank.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Article
- A narrative review of dietary patterns in cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Plant-based diet, metabolic signature, genetic susceptibility, and risk of musculoskeletal disorders: a large-scale population-based prospective cohort study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- The impact of digital literacy on health behaviors among middle-aged and older adults: the mediating roles of proactive health awareness and social capital.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Adherence to plant-based diet and risk of heart failure among middle-aged and older population.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Review
- Plant-Based Diets and Cardiometabolic Diseases in a Cohort of Iranian Adults: A Systematic Review of Evidence from the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study.International journal of endocrinology and metabolism · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
37 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIt is currently unknown whether plant-based dietary patterns influence disease progression to multimorbidity after an initial non-communicable disease, and whether the associated risk of multimorbidity varies with age. This study aimed to investigate associations of plant-based diets with the risk of multimorbidity, defined as the co-occurrence of at least two chronic diseases in an individual (either cancer at any site, cardiovascular disease, or type 2 diabetes).
methodsThis prospective cohort study used data from EPIC and UK Biobank across six European countries, with participants aged 35-70 years at recruitment. We excluded participants from these cohorts who had cancer, cardiovascular disease, or type 2 diabetes at baseline or those with missing data on diet or health outcomes. Data on dietary habits were assessed either at baseline through a validated dietary questionnaire about habits in the previous 12 months or through several 24-h recall questionnaires during approximately a year of follow-up. Multistate modelling with Cox regression was used to estimate the risk of multimorbidity according to a healthful plant-based diet index (hPDI) and, separately, an unhealthful plant-based diet index (uPDI). Risk differences in adults younger than 60 years and those age 60 years and older were estimated.
findings407 618 participants (226 324 from EPIC and 181 294 from UK Biobank) were included in this study. During a median follow-up time of 10·9 years in EPIC and 11·4 years in UK Biobank, 6604 cancer-cardiometabolic multimorbidity events occurred in both cohorts combined. A ten-point increment of the hPDI score was associated with a lower risk of multimorbidity, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0·89 (95% CI 0·83-0·96) in EPIC and 0·81 (0·76-0·86) in UK Biobank. This inverse association was marginally weaker in older adults than in middle-aged adults in both cohorts. In UK Biobank, a ten-point increment of the hPDI score was associated with multivariable-adjusted HRs of 0·71 (95% CI 0·65-0·79) in adults younger than 60 years and 0·86 (0·80-0·92) in those aged 60 years and older (p
interpretationA healthy plant-based diet might reduce the burden of multimorbidity of cancer and cardiometabolic diseases among middle-aged and older adults.
fundingThe Korean Government (Ministry of Science and ICT).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.