Table 2.
Epidemiological studies on egg consumption and diabetes risk
| Reference | Population | Design and sample size | Exposure metric | Outcome measure | Findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Djousse et al40 | Physicians’ Health Study I: males, 40–85 years; Women’s Health Study: females, ≥45 years at enrollment | Prospective cohort. N=20,703 males and 36,295 females | Usual egg intake; six groups: 0, <1, 1, 2–4, 5–6, and ≥7 eggs per week | Incidence of self-reported T2DM | ≥ 1 egg/day increases the risk of developing T2DM. ≥7 eggs/week associated with HR of: 1.58 (95% CI 1.25–2.01) (men), 1.77 (95% CI 1.28–2.43) (women) |
| Djousse et al41 | Cardiovascular Health Study, randomly selected Caucasian men and women ≥65 years | Prospective cohort. N=3,898 | Usual egg intake; five groups: never, <1/month, 1–3/month, 1–4/week, and almost every day | Incidence of T2DM (use of insulin, oral hypoglycemic agents, FPG >7.0 mmol/L, or nonfasting PG >11.1 mmol/L) | No association between egg consumption or dietary cholesterol and risk of T2DM (P-trend=0.47) |
| Ericson et al65 | Malmo Diet and Cancer Cohort, men and women 45–74 years | Prospective cohort. N=27,140 | Egg intake; quintiles (g/day) based on consumption diaries | Incidence of T2DM (FPG >7.0 mmol/L or ≥2 HbA1C values >6%) | Intakes in highest quintile of egg intake increases risk of T2DM (HR =1.21; 1.04–1.41; P-trend=0.02). Diets high in protein also associated with increased risk of T2DM (HR =1.27; 1.08–1.49; P-trend=0.01) |
| Shi et al42 | Sample from National Nutrition and Health Survey (2002), Jaingsu Province, Eastern China, adults ≥20 years | Cross-sectional study. N=1,308 males and 1,541 females | Egg intake; three groups: ≤2 eggs/week, 2–6 eggs/week, and ≥ 1 egg/day | Incidence of T2DM (FPG >7.0 mmol/L) | Intake of ≥ 1 egg/day increases the risk of developing T2DM. Intake of ≥7 eggs/week OR: 2.01 (95% CI 0.73–5.55) for men, and 2.90 (95% CI 1.08–7.84) for women |
| Agrawal and Ebrahim64 | Sample from India’s third National Family Health Survey (2005–2006), men and women 20–49 years | Cross-sectional study. N=56,742 males and 99,574 females | Usual egg intake; three groups: occasionally/never, weekly, and daily | Self-reported diabetes | No increased odds of diabetes with increasing egg consumption, in men or women |
| Radzevičienė et al63 | Lithuanian subjects from an outpatient clinic Cases: 35–86 years with confirmed T2DM Controls: sex-/age-matched | Case control study. N=234 cases; 468 controls | Egg intake using a special survey: <l, 1–1.9, 2–2.9, 3–4.9, and ≥5 eggs/week | T2DM cases confirmed based on WHO criteria | Increased T2DM risk related to egg consumption. ≥5 egg/week had threefold greater risk than <1 egg/week (OR =3.02; 1.14–7.98; P-trend=0.003). |
| Qiu et al: Alpha study44 | Cases: women with diagnosed GDM Controls: women who remained normotensive and did not develop GDM | Case control study. N=185 cases; 411 controls | Usual egg intake (3 months preconception and first trimester); six groups: 0–1, 2–3, 4–6, 7–9, and ≥10/week; Two groups: <7 and ≥7 eggs/week | GDM (3-hour glucose tolerance test cut points according to the National Diabetes Data Group Criteria) | High egg and cholesterol intakes before and during pregnancy are associated with increased risk of GDM. Consuming ≥7 eggs/week compared with <7 eggs/week OR: 2.65 (95% CI 1.48–4.72) |
| Qiu et al: Omega study44 | Women recruited from prenatal care clinics associated with Swedish Medical Center and Tacoma General Hospital in Seattle and Tacoma, Washington State | Prospective cohort. N=3,158 | Usual egg intake (3 months preconception and first trimester); six groups: 0–1, 2–3, 4–6, 7–9, and ≥10/week; Two groups: <7 and ≥7 eggs/week | Incidence of GDM (FPG ≥5.3 mmol/L; postchallenge glucose concentration ≥10.0 mmol/L [1-hour], ≥8.6 mmol/L [2-hour], or ≥7.8 mmol/L [3-hour]) | Egg and cholesterol intakes before and during pregnancy associated with increased risk of GDM. Consumption of ≥7 eggs/week RR: 1.77 (95% CI 1.19–2.63) |
| Liese et al43 | Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study; age 40–69 years | Prospective cohort. N=880 subjects with normal glucose tolerance or impaired glucose tolerance | Dietary pattern | T2DM (2-hour glucose levels ≥200 mg/dL, or taking hypoglycemic meds) | High intake of red meat, low-fiber bread and cereal, dried beans, fried potatoes, tomato, vegetables, eggs, cheese, and cottage cheese and low intake of wine characterize pattern associated with T2DM. |
| Imamura et al45 | Framingham Offspring Study cohort; mean age: 54.2 years | Prospective cohort. N=2,879 (54.5% males) | Dietary pattern scores | Incidence of T2DM (oral hypoglycemic drug or insulin use, or FPG ≥7.0 mmol/L) | Intake of eggs is a predictive component of some of the dietary scores associated with T2DM. |
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; FPG, fasting plasma glucose; GDM, gestational diabetes mellitus; HbA1C, hemoglobin A1C; HR, hazard ratio; N = sample size; OR, odds ratio; PG, plasma glucose; RR, relative risk; T2DM, type 2 diabetes mellitus; WHO, World Health Organization.