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Population study: followed a group

In 416,588 UK adults, red and processed meat went with more lung cancer

Wei and colleagues · The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2021

Original title: Diet and Risk of Incident Lung Cancer: A Large Prospective Cohort Study in UK Biobank.

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What the study found

Points to harm

More red meat went with more lung cancer (HRper 50 g/d: 1.36; 95% CI: 1.13, 1.65). Processed meat too (HRper 25 g/d: 1.30; 95% CI: 1.10, 1.53).

The study at a glance

Type of study
Population study: followed a group
Who or what was studied
416,588 people · UK adults followed a median 7.13 years; 1782 got lung cancer
What was tested
Each extra 50 g a day of red meat and 25 g a day of processed meat
What it measured
The question itself: cancer, heart disease and death
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed; funded by UK Medical Research Council.
Journal
The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2021
Source
PubMed record 34582556. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • –Shows a link, not a cause: people chose their own habits, and other differences between them may explain the result.
  • ✓Followed people over time, so habits were recorded before the outcome happened.
  • ✓Large: 416,588 people.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: cancer, heart disease and death.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: cancer and heart disease

    0

    Not done yet. This is the step that would answer the question.

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    6

    2 benefit, 4 harm

  4. Population studies

    12

    1 benefit, 2 mixed, 1 no difference, 8 harm

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does red meat raise cancer and heart disease risk?”

Linked to higher risk, especially processed meat.

Confidence: low. Based on 30 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 11 papers on the same step: 1 benefit, 2 mixed, 1 no difference, 7 harm. This one found harm. It agrees with most of them.

Other papers on the same step

See all 30 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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