Eating Timing and Frequency as a Predictor of Hospitalization and/or Mortality From Coronary Artery Disease: The Linked CCHS-DAD-CMDB 2004-2013 Study

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major overlapping challenge in both clinical and public health realms due to high rates of hospitalization and mortality. Despite nutrition being a key risk factor for CAD, little is known about eating timing and frequency in Canadians or their relation to risk of hospitalization and/or mortality from CAD. METHODS: Breakfast consumption, between-meal consumption, eating frequency, and established CAD risk factors were assessed at baseline in 13,328 adults free of cancer and CAD from the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey, Cycle 2.2, Nutrition Focus and were linked to administrative health databases to determine incidence of hospitalization and/or mortality from CAD in the following 9 years. Multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals estimated from Cox proportional hazards models were computed to test for associations between eating timing/frequency and hospitalization and/or mortality from CAD (n = 746 cases). RESULTS: Skipping breakfast (12.0% of participants) and engaging in between-meal consumption (90.2%) were common practices, as was eating 4-5 times per day (55.2%). Skipping breakfast, between-meal consumption, and eating more or less than 4-5 times/day were strongly and bi-directionally associated with many sociodemographic, lifestyle, and metabolic risk factors at baseline. No associations were observed between skipping breakfast, between-meal consumption, or eating frequency and risk of hospitalization and/or mortality from CAD. CONCLUSIONS: Skipping breakfast, between-meal consumption, and eating frequency were associated with numerous established risk and preventative factors for CAD at baseline but were not directly associated with the risk of hospitalization and/or mortality from CAD in this cohort of Canadian adults.