A prospective study of regular milk drinking and the risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality in U.S. adults: findings from the NHANES 2003-2008

Background: scholars have studied the influences of milk consumption on health. This prospective cohort study evaluated the association between regular milk consumption (RMD) and mortality, including all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer-specific mortality, in Americans who were aged 20 years and older. Methods: it was attempted to analyze data from the 2003 to 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), including 8,653 participants with an average follow-up of 160.59 months (standard deviation = 0.96). Regular milk consumption (RMD) was defined as drinking milk at least five times per week. Cox proportional hazards regression models were thereafter utilized for analysis. Results: a significant association was noticeable particularly between RMD and higher rates of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.27; 95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.03-1.56; p = 0.03) and cancer mortality (HR = 1.53; 95 % CI: 1.01-2.32; p = 0.04), rather than with CVD mortality (HR = 1.03; 95 % CI: 0.73-1.44; p = 0.84). The association between RMD and all-cause mortality was notably observed across various subgroups in sensitivity and subgroup analyses. Conclusions: these outcomes unveiled the importance of exercising caution with milk consumption, which could be emphasized in public health recommendations.