You Wenpeng, Feng Shuhuan, Donnelly Frank
Heart and Lung, Royal Adelaide Hospital Adelaide Australia.
Adelaide Nursing School, The University of Adelaide Adelaide Australia.
Health Sci Rep. 2025 Jun 30;8(7):e70990. doi: 10.1002/hsr2.70990. eCollection 2025 Jul.
The impact of white meat on cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is rarely reported, while red meat has been extensively associated with CVDs. This phenomenon is worth exploring, considering that there is no substantial difference in composition between red meat and white meat.
Country-specific data were extracted from United Nations agencies to analyse and compare the statistical roles of red meat and white meat in contributing to CVD incidence. Ageing, socioeconomic status, obesity, and urbanization were included as confounders in four data analysis models: bivariate correlations (Pearson's and nonparametric), partial correlation, and stepwise linear regression.
Globally, both red meat and white meat showed significant correlations with CVD incidence in bivariate analyses. However, when adjusting for confounders and the effect of red meat, red meat consistently maintained a significant association with CVD incidence, whereas the correlation for white meat became weak or negligible. These findings suggest that the apparent association between white meat consumption and CVD may be largely due to confounding by red meat intake.
Our analyses imply that red meat consumption exhibits a significantly stronger correlation with CVD incidence than white meat consumption. Although both meat types show significant associations in bivariate analyses, the association for white meat becomes negligible after adjusting for red meat intake and other confounding factors. This suggests that the adverse effects observed in studies that consider white meat consumption may be largely attributable to concurrent red meat consumption, rather than reflecting an independent risk from white meat.
白肉对心血管疾病（CVD）的影响鲜有报道，而红肉已被广泛认为与心血管疾病有关。考虑到红肉和白肉在成分上没有实质性差异，这一现象值得探究。
从联合国机构提取特定国家的数据，以分析和比较红肉和白肉在导致心血管疾病发病率方面的统计学作用。在四个数据分析模型中纳入了老龄化、社会经济地位、肥胖和城市化作为混杂因素：双变量相关性（皮尔逊相关性和非参数相关性）、偏相关性和逐步线性回归。
在全球范围内，在双变量分析中，红肉和白肉均与心血管疾病发病率显示出显著相关性。然而，在调整混杂因素和红肉的影响后，红肉始终与心血管疾病发病率保持显著关联，而白肉的相关性则变弱或可忽略不计。这些发现表明，白肉消费与心血管疾病之间的明显关联可能在很大程度上是由于红肉摄入造成的混杂效应。
我们的分析表明，红肉消费与心血管疾病发病率的相关性显著强于白肉消费。虽然在双变量分析中两种肉类均显示出显著关联，但在调整红肉摄入量和其他混杂因素后，白肉的关联变得可忽略不计。这表明，在考虑白肉消费的研究中观察到的不良影响可能在很大程度上归因于同时摄入红肉，而不是反映白肉的独立风险。
