Dietary calcium and magnesium intake and mortality: a prospective study of men

Am J Epidemiol. 2010 Apr 1;171(7):801-7. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwp467. Epub 2010 Feb 19.

Abstract

The authors examined the association of dietary calcium and magnesium intake with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer mortality among 23,366 Swedish men, aged 45-79 years, who did not use dietary supplements. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the multivariate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals of mortality. From baseline 1998 through December 2007, 2,358 deaths from all causes were recorded in the Swedish population registry; through December 2006, 819 CVD and 738 cancer deaths were recorded in the Swedish cause-of-death registry. Dietary calcium was associated with a statistically significant lower rate of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.75, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.63, 0.88; P(trend) < 0.001) and a nonsignificantly lower rate of CVD (HR = 0.77, 95% CI: 0.58, 1.01; P(trend) = 0.064) but not cancer mortality (HR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.65, 1.17; P(trend) = 0.362) when the highest intake tertile (mean = 1,953 mg/day; standard deviation (SD), 334) was compared with the lowest (990 mg/day; SD, 187). Dietary magnesium intake (means of tertiles ranged from 387 mg/day (SD, 31) to 523 mg/day (SD, 38) was not associated with all-cause, CVD, or cancer mortality. This population-based, prospective study of men with relatively high intakes of dietary calcium and magnesium showed that intake of calcium above that recommended daily may reduce all-cause mortality.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Calcium, Dietary* / adverse effects
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / mortality
  • Cause of Death
  • Feeding Behavior*
  • Humans
  • Magnesium* / adverse effects
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Mortality*
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Proportional Hazards Models
  • Prospective Studies
  • Sweden / epidemiology

Substances

  • Calcium, Dietary
  • Magnesium