Nutrition and Health – The Association between Eating Behavior and Various Health Parameters: A Matched Sample Study
Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Medical University Graz, Graz, Austria
Conclusions Our study has shown that Austrian adults who consume a vegetarian [vegan] diet are less healthy (in terms of cancer, allergies, and mental health disorders), have a lower quality of life, and also require more medical treatments.
Overall, our findings reveal that vegetarians [vegans] report poorer health, follow medical treatment more frequently, have worse preventive health care practices, and have a lower quality of life.
Our results have shown that vegetarians [vegans] report chronic conditions and poorer subjective health more frequently.
When analyzing the frequency of chronic diseases, we found significantly higher cancer incidence rates in vegetarians [vegans] than in subjects with other dietary habits. This is in line with previous findings, reporting that evidence about cancer rates, abdominal complaints, and all-cause mortality in vegetarians [vegans] is rather inconsistent.
Vegetarians [vegans] in our study suffer significantly more often from anxiety disorder and/or depression. Additionally, they have a poorer quality of life in terms of physical health, social relationships, and environmental factors. Moreover, the use of health care differs significantly between the dietary habit groups in our study. Vegetarians [vegans] need more medical treatment than subjects following another form of diet. However, this might be due to the number of chronic conditions, which is higher in subjects with a vegetarian [vegan] diet.
(2014) Nutrition and Health – The Association between Eating Behavior and Various Health Parameters: A Matched Sample Study.
PLoS ONE 9(2): e88278. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088278
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/asset?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0088278.PDF
