Table 2. Summary risk estimates of the association between dairy foods and risk of CHD .

	N b	No. of cases	Risk estimate (95% CI)	Heterogeneity test			References
			REM	I 2 (%)	P	P a
Total dairy	21	11806	0.99 (0.92-1.06)	51.6	0.003
Outcome						0.44
Incidence	9	7787	1.03(0.88-1.21)	44.9	0.06		[19-21, 36, 42, 46, 48, 49]
Mortality	12	4019	0.97(0.97-1.04)	51.6	0.003		[11, 12, 17, 18, 37, 38, 41, 45, 51]
Location where the study was conducted
Europe	12	6136	0.98(0.89-1.08)	56.8	0.008	1	[11, 12, 20, 21, 36, 41, 45, 46, 48, 49, 51]
Asia	4	1494	0.98(0.68-1.42)	58.6	0.06	0.96	[17, 37]
Others	9	4176	1.01(0.9-1.14)	42.5	0.13	0.90	[18, 19, 38, 42]
Sex						0.95
Male	6	2485	1.01(0.89-1.15)	35.6	0.17		[17, 36, 37, 41, 42, 45]
Female	8	6930	0.99(0.85-1.16)	64.9	0.006		[17, 19, 37, 38, 41, 42, 46, 51]
Quality
High	17	11185	1(0.94-1.07)	45.4	0.02	1	[11, 17, 19-21, 37, 38, 41, 42, 46, 49, 51]
Moderate	3	425	0.95(0.53-1.68)	77.7	0.01	0.54	[12, 18, 36]
Low	1	196	0.68(0.40-1.14)	0	0.00	0.26	[45]
Adjusting for 4 or more covariates(smoking, alcohol, total energy intake, BMI, Physical activity and ≥3 other dietary variables) (0.15) a
Yes	16	10974	0.96(0.88-1.04)	47.2	0.01		[17, 19-21, 36-38, 41, 46, 48, 49, 51]
No	5	832	1.11(0.94-1.30)	46.3	0.11		[11, 12, 42, 45]
Fat content of dairy					0.74
Low fat	11	8620	1.01(0.94-1.09)	62.6	0.00		[18-21, 41, 42, 46, 48, 49]
High fat	11	8620	0.98(0.94-1.01)	2.4	0.41		[18-21, 41, 42, 46, 48, 49]

BMI: body mass index, REM: random effect model.

^a P value for meta-regression, and location where the study was conducted (Europe as the reference) and Quality (high as the reference) and sex (male as the reference).

^b N: number of results; 2 separate results (male and female) were available in 4 studies.^17,37,41,42