Association between olive oil consumption and all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality in adult subjects: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: The Mediterranean diet is characterized by the preferential use of olive oil (OO) and has been associated with health benefits possibly mediated by its bioactive compounds. Objectives: We aimed to analyze the association between OO consumption and changes in all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality and cancer mortality in the adult population. Methods: A systematic review was conducted using the Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases up to October 2024. DerSimonian and Laird's random effects method was used to calculate pooled estimates of hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) to determine the association between OO use and changes in all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and cancer mortality. Results: Fourteen studies were included in the systematic review and seven in the meta-analysis. Our results showed an association between OO consumption and reduction in all-cause mortality (HR: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.80–0.91), cardiovascular mortality (HR: 0.84; 95% CI: 0.76–0.93) and cancer mortality (HR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.86–0.93). Conclusions: Consumption of OO particularly reduces cardiovascular mortality (16%), followed by all-cause mortality (15%) and cancer mortality (11%) in the adult population. However, further studies are needed to clarify the underlying mechanisms.