A study found that various vegetarian diets, especially pesco-vegetarian diets, including fish, contribute to lower mortality risk in elderly individuals.

Researchers at Loma Linda University Health have found that vegetarian diets are linked to a lower risk of all-cause mortality and many specific causes of mortality, especially among males and middle-aged individuals. However, there were slightly higher risks observed among very elderly vegetarians for neurological conditions such as stroke, dementia, and Parkinson’s Disease. Despite this, the pesco-vegetarian diet continued to provide a small but noticeable advantage over other vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets, even in elderly individuals.

Gary Fraser, MBChB, PhD, a distinguished professor at Loma Linda University School of Public Health and the principal investigator of the study, mentioned that while a vegetarian diet seems to provide protection from the risk of death through middle age, the overall advantage appears to diminish for those strictly adhering to a vegetarian diet once they reach their 80s.

“These increased risks of neurological conditions among vegetarians in their 80s weren’t huge. However, there is something going on that we shouldn’t ignore if we want the vegetarian advantage to continue for all vegetarians in their later years,” Fraser said.

The study “Cause-specific and all-cause mortalities in vegetarian compared to non-vegetarian participants from the Adventist Health Study-2 cohort” was published on August 2 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The study utilized data from the Adventist Health Study-2, which included nearly 96,000 participants who were Seventh-day Adventists residing in the United States and Canada during the study’s baseline recruitment between 2002 and 2007, with follow-up through 2015. Over the years, data from this group has been used for numerous health, disease, and mortality studies. This specific study analyzed data from more than 88,000 participants, with approximately 12,500 deaths in the study cohort. Dietary data were collected through a questionnaire and grouped into five categories: non-vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian, lacto-ovo-vegetarian, and vegan.

Fraser and his team discovered that Adventist vegetarians, as a whole, had a 12% lower risk of death compared to Adventist non-vegetarians. Participants following a pesco-vegetarian diet had an 18% lower risk of death, while those adhering to a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet (including dairy and eggs) had a 15% lower risk of death. Overall, vegans had a less than 3% decreased risk of death, with male vegans showing better outcomes than non-vegetarians, unlike their female counterparts.

“Overall, this is some of the clearest data that American vegetarians are greater protected from premature death than non-vegetarians,” Fraser said.