Omega-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Peripheral Artery Disease: An Individual Participant-Level Analysis of 9 International Prospective Studies.
Sarah O Nomura, Natalie L Weir, Weihua Guan et al.
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In 30 seconds
This multicohort individual participant-level analysis and meta-analysis examined baseline omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids and incident peripheral artery disease (PAD) among 137,704 participants without clinical PAD across 9 prospective cohorts; 2,014 developed PAD. Over a median follow-up of 14 years, higher linoleic acid (LA) was associated with lower PAD risk: the highest versus lowest quintile had a hazard ratio of 0.75 (95% CI, 0.64-0.89; P =0.0009). Other measured omega-6 fatty acids were not associated with PAD incidence. Associations did not differ significantly by age, sex, diabetes, or smoking status.
Key findings
- For LA, PAD risk was lower in quintile 5 versus quintile 1 (HR, 0.75 [95% CI, 0.64-0.89]; P =0.0009).
- Arachidonic acid, dihomo-γ-LA, γ-LA, and eicosadienoic acid were not associated with incident PAD.
- LA associations did not differ significantly by age, sex, diabetes status, or smoking status.
Why it matters
The findings suggest that associations between dietary or circulating fatty acids and vascular outcomes may differ by individual fatty acid, rather than applying uniformly to omega-6 PUFAs as a group. This distinction may help refine research on PAD risk and fatty-acid biomarkers, while the observational association does not establish that LA itself prevents PAD.
What to keep in mind
The analysis was observational, so it cannot establish that LA causes lower PAD risk. Fatty acids were measured at baseline, and the abstract does not report repeated exposure measurements.