ABSTRACT: Background:Higher fruit consumption is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Substantial uncertainties remain, however, about the associations of fruit consumption with all-cause mortality and mortality from subtypes of CVD and major non-vascular diseases, especially in China. Methods:In 2004-08, the nationwide China Kadoorie Biobank Study recruited > 0.5 million adults aged 30-79 years from 10 diverse localities in China. Fresh fruit consumption was estimated using an interviewer-administered electronic questionnaire, and mortality data were collected from death registries. Among the 462?342 participants who were free of major chronic diseases at baseline, 17?894 deaths were recorded during ? 7 years of follow-up. Cox regression yielded adjusted rate ratios (RRs) for all-cause and cause-specific mortality associated with fruit consumption. Results:At baseline, 28% of participants reported consuming fruit ??4 days/week (regular consumers) and 6% reported never/rarely consuming fruit (non-consumers). Compared with non-consumers, regular consumers had 27% [RR?=?0.73, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.70-0.76] lower all-cause mortality, 34% lower CVD mortality (n?=?6166; RR?=?0.66, 0.61-0.71), 17% lower cancer mortality (n?=?6796; RR?=?0.83, 0.78-0.89) and 42% lower mortality from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (n?=?1119; RR?=?0.58, 0.47-0.71). For each of the above, there was an approximately log-linear dose-response relationship with amount consumed. For mortality from site-specific cancers, fruit consumption was inversely associated with digestive tract cancer (n?=?2265; RR?=?0.72, 0.64-0.81), particularly oesophageal cancer (n?=?801; RR?=?0.65, 0.50-0.83), but not with cancer of lung or liver. Conclusions:Among Chinese adults, higher fresh fruit consumption was associated with significantly lower mortality from several major vascular and non-vascular diseases. Given the current low population level of fruit consumption, substantial health benefits could be gained from increased fruit consumption in China.
