Dietary calcium intake and the risk of metabolic syndrome: evidence from observational studies

ObjectiveEpidemiological investigations evaluating the association of dietary Ca intake with metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk have yielded controversial results. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted to quantitatively summarize the association between dietary Ca intake and the risk of MetS.DesignPubMed, Embase and Web of Science were searched for relevant articles published up to October 2018. The pooled OR and 95 % CI were calculated with a random-effects model.SettingMeta-analysis.ParticipantsNine cross-sectional studies.ResultsA total of nine articles with fifteen studies for dietary Ca intake were finally included in the meta-analysis. The combined OR with 95 % CI of MetS for the highest v. lowest category of dietary Ca intake was 080 (95 % CI 070, 091). For dose-response analysis, a non-linear relationship was found between dietary intake of Ca and risk of MetS (P (non-linearity)<0001). The threshold for dietary Ca intake was 280 mg/d (OR=087; 95 % CI 082, 093), reducing the risk of MetS by 13 %.ConclusionsThe present meta-analysis suggests that dietary Ca intake might reduce the risk of MetS, which needs to be further confirmed by larger prospective cohort studies.