Association of Dietary intake of vitamin E with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease events in US adults: A cross-sectional study of NHANES 2013–2018

INTRODUCTION: Several studies have demonstrated that vitamin E intake is negatively associated with the development of several diseases, but the relationship between vitamin E intake and COPD in different groups of people is not clear. The aim was to investigate the relationship between vitamin E intake and COPD in different groups of people. METHODS: This study used data from NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) from 2013–2018. A final total of 4,706 participants were included, univariate versus multivariate logistic regression and restricted cubic spline models adjusted for confounders were used to explore the relationship between vitamin E intake and COPD, and subgroup analyses were conducted to assess whether there are differences in the relationship between vitamin E intake and COPD in different populations or conditions. RESULTS: After adjusting for potential confounders, higher vitamin E intake showed a significant negative association with COPD [Model 1(unadjusted covariates, OR = 0.48;95% CI:0.33–0.70; p < 0.001), Model 2(adjusted for age, sex, and race, OR = 0.48;95% CI:0.31–0.73; p < 0.01), and Model 3(adjusted for all covariates, OR = 0.57;95% CI:0.36–0.91; p = 0.02)]. And a restricted cubic spline curve showed a significant negative correlation between vitamin E intake and COPD (p for nonlinear = 0.2036). In the subgroup analysis, we found a negative association between vitamin E intake and COPD in all subgroups as well. CONCLUSION: After analyzing data based on the NHANES database from 2013–2018, the results showed that vitamin E intake among U.S. adults was well below the recommended levels and that higher vitamin E intake was negatively associated with COPD incidence.