Consumption of potatoes and incidence rate of coronary artery disease: The Million Veteran Program

Summary Background Potato consumption is highly prevalent around the world. Previous studies have reported a positive association of potato intake with hypertension and type 2 diabetes. However, data are scarce on potato consumption and risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). Objective We hypothesized that potato consumption is positively associated with the incidence of CAD among US veterans. Design We prospectively studied 148,671 participants from Million Veteran Program (MVP). We used a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire to assess consumption of baked, boiled, and mashed potatoes. The incidence of CAD was assessed through electronic health record. We used Cox Proportional hazard model to compute hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for CAD events across categories of potato intake. Result The average age of participants was 64 years at the time of potato assessment. A total of 6,309 new cases of CAD occurred during a mean follow up of 2.7 ± 1.4 y. Median potato consumption was 1 cup/week. The crude incidence of CAD from lowest to highest category of potato consumption was 14.5, 15.0, 15.2, 16.1, and 18.9 per 1000 person-years, respectively. Hazard ratios (95% CI) of CAD were 1.00 (reference), 1.02 (0.93-1.11), 1.02 (0.93-1.12), 1.04 (0.95 - 1.15), and 1.21 (1.07-1.37) for potato intake of Conclusion Frequent (5+ cups/week) but not infrequent potato consumption was associated with a higher risk of CAD among MVP participants.