TY - JOUR
T1 - Vegetarian diet and healthy aging among Chinese older adults
T2 - a prospective study
AU - Jigeer, Guliyeerke
AU - Wang, Kaiyue
AU - Lv, Yuebing
AU - Tucker, Katherine L.
AU - Shen, Xiuhua
AU - Chen, Fan
AU - Sun, Liang
AU - Shi, Xiaoming
AU - Li, Yaqi
AU - Gao, Xiang
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.
PY - 2025/12
Y1 - 2025/12
N2 - Vegetarian diets are increasingly popular worldwide, but their impact on healthy aging in older adults remains unclear. This study examined the association between vegetarian diets and healthy aging among 2,888 healthy older Chinese adults from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. Dietary patterns (vegan, ovo-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian, omnivorous) were derived from a simplified non-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Over a median follow-up of 6 years, after accounting for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, vegetarians had lower odds of achieving healthy aging compared to omnivores (adjusted OR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.47-0.89), with consistent results across sensitivity analyses and individual health components. Additionally, the health effects of vegetarian diets may vary depending on diet quality, with vegetarians of higher diet quality not significantly differing in terms of overall healthy aging and individual outcomes when compared to omnivores. Accordingly, this finding highlights modest inclusion of animal-based foods may improve the overall health status of healthy older adults.
AB - Vegetarian diets are increasingly popular worldwide, but their impact on healthy aging in older adults remains unclear. This study examined the association between vegetarian diets and healthy aging among 2,888 healthy older Chinese adults from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. Dietary patterns (vegan, ovo-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian, omnivorous) were derived from a simplified non-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Over a median follow-up of 6 years, after accounting for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, vegetarians had lower odds of achieving healthy aging compared to omnivores (adjusted OR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.47-0.89), with consistent results across sensitivity analyses and individual health components. Additionally, the health effects of vegetarian diets may vary depending on diet quality, with vegetarians of higher diet quality not significantly differing in terms of overall healthy aging and individual outcomes when compared to omnivores. Accordingly, this finding highlights modest inclusion of animal-based foods may improve the overall health status of healthy older adults.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105001651122
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=105001651122&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41514-025-00213-4
DO - 10.1038/s41514-025-00213-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 40169599
AN - SCOPUS:105001651122
SN - 2056-3973
VL - 11
JO - npj Aging
JF - npj Aging
IS - 1
M1 - 25
ER -