Digestery
Everyday supplements › Fish Oil and the Heart › Studies

Randomized trial · measured other health measures

3-year trial in 2,157 older Europeans: omega-3 did not clearly change major heart events

Gaengler and colleagues · The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2024

Original title: Effects of vitamin D, omega-3 and a simple strength exercise programme in cardiovascular disease prevention: The DO-HEALTH randomized controlled trial.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

No difference

Omega-3 did not change the risk of major heart events (adjusted HR 1.00, 95% CI 0.64-1.56). It lowered triglycerides (-0.08 mmol/L) but raised LDL cholesterol (0.11 mmol/L).

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
2,157 people · healthy Europeans aged 70 and older
What was tested
1 g a day of omega-3 versus placebo, plus vitamin D and home exercise in a mix of groups, 3 years
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
Daily amount
1 g a day
How long
156 weeks
Trial registration
NCT01745263
Who has a stake
Company stake
One author reports funding from DSM, Pfizer, Nestec, Roche and others; the trial's omega-3 supplier is not named in the abstract.
Journal
The journal of nutrition, health & aging, 2024
Source
PubMed record 38199870. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • ✓Compared with a placebo, a dummy treatment.
  • ✓Large: 2,157 people.
  • ✓Long: about 3 years.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • –Company stake: One author reports funding from DSM, Pfizer, Nestec, Roche and others; the trial's omega-3 supplier is not named in the abstract.
  • •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: heart attacks, strokes and heart deaths

    11

    7 benefit, 4 no difference

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    3

    1 benefit, 2 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  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 fish oil prevent heart disease?”

Little or no effect in most trials.

Confidence: moderate. Based on 21 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 2 papers on the same step: 1 benefit, 1 no difference. This one found no difference.

Other papers on the same step

See all 21 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
Not yet. Required before search engines may list this page.

Spot an error? Email a flag with a link to your source, or use the form on the question page.