. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Oct 1.

Published in final edited form as: Trends Cardiovasc Med. 2018 Feb 13;28(7):437–441. doi: 10.1016/j.tcm.2018.02.004

Table 1.

Summary effect estimates of meta-analyses of RCTs examining the effects vegetarian diets on cardiovascular risk factors

Author (year)	Endpoint	Types of control diets	Summary effect estimate comparing vegetarian with control diets
Wang (2015) (22)	Total cholesterol	Usual diet, ADA diet, Prudent diet with lean meat, Low fat diet, Diabetic diet	−0.36 mmol/L (−0.55, −0.17)^*
	LDL cholesterol		−0.34 mmol/L (−0.57, −0.11)^*
	HDL cholesterol		−0.10 mmol/L (−0.14, −0.06)^*
	Triglycerides		0.04 mmol/L (−0.05, 0.13)
	Non-HDL cholesterol		−0.30 mmol/L (−0.50, −0.10)^*
Yokoyama (2014) (23)	Systolic blood pressure^†	Usual diet, Prudent diet with lean meat, Low fat diet	−4.8 mmHg (−6.6, −3.1)^*
Yokoyama (2014) (23)	Diastolic blood pressure^†	Usual diet, Prudent diet with lean meat, Low fat diet	−2.2 mmHg (−3.5, −1.0)^*
Huang (2015) (24)	Body weight	Usual diet, Diabetic diet, Low fat diet, NCEP diet, Low carb diet, High carb diet, High protein (from meat) diet	−2.02 kg (−2.80, −1.23)^*
Yokoyama (2014) (25)	HbA1c^††	Usual diet, ADA diet, Low fat diet, Diabetic diet	−0.39% (−0.62, −0.15)^*
Yokoyama (2014) (25)	Fasting blood glucose	Usual diet, ADA diet, Low fat diet, Diabetic diet	−0.36 mmol/L (−1.04, 0.32)

RCT, Randomized Controlled Trial; LDL, Low-Density Lipoprotein; HDL, High-density lipoprotein; HbA1c, glycated hemoglobin; ADA, American Diabetes Association; NCEP, National Cholesterol Education Program

P value<0.05

^†

1 trial out of 7 trials was non-randomized

^††

2 trials out of 5 trials were non-randomized