Human studies on relationships between nutrient and non-nutrient dietary factors and cardiovascular disease published within 10 years were systematically reviewed. The studies examined have been limited to cohort studies with incidence and/or mortality of coronary heart disease and stroke as outcome and intervention studies with blood pressure or serum/plasma cholesterol change as outcome. In the latter, only meta-analysis and systematic reviews were included. Original articles published during 1993 and 2001 have been identified using PubMed. The 76, 36, 8, and 14 publications, respectively, have met the criteria and were included in the analysis. The recent trend of cohort studies was as follows : 1) increase in studies with quantitative, rather than qualitative, evaluation of nutrient intake, 2) increase in studies which examined antioxidant and homocysteine-related nutrients, 3) increase in studies with nutrients with strictly limited function, and 4) the majority of studies used highly scientific methods of dietary assessment and analysis such as use of dietary assessment methods with validation studies and use of intakes adjusted for energy. The trend for intervention studies was as follows : 1) there were several randomized controlled trials, 2) several studies examined the effect of nutrients which had been suggested from animal, rather than observational epidemiological, studies, and 3) for nutrients for which correlation with cardiovascular disease has almost been established, studies were shifting to examining practical availability. However, although warranted, reports from Japan or Asian countries were scarce.
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