Comparison Of Predictive Performance Of Various Fatty Acids For The Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease Events And All-cause Deaths In A Community-based Cohort, Atherosclerosis, September, 2013

This was a prospective study from Taiwan, 1833 men and women (average age 60) were followed for about 10 years. The relative risk (RR) of death in the highest quartile compared with the lowest quartile (of fatty acids in their blood) was:

1.33 for saturated fats (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01–1.75, test for trend, P = 0.015)
1.71 for trans fats (95% CI, 1.27–2.31, test for trend, P = 0.0003)
0.77 for EPA (95% CI, 0.59–1.00, test for trend, P = 0.048)
0.89 for DHA (95% CI, 0.68–1.18, test for trend, P = 0.354)

Note that there was a higher risk of death for only saturated fats and trans fats (the RR was above 1.00). Note also that even though the RR was below 1.00, that is, appeared to show protection for the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, it did not rise to a level of significance, especially for DHA.

“CONCLUSIONS: Our data provides strong evidence to support that plasma saturated fats and trans fats can predict all-cause death and CVD [cardiovascular disease] more effectively than other fatty acid markers.”