Zhi-Hao Li, Xiang Gao, Vincent Ch Chung, Wen-Fang Zhong, Qi Fu, Yue-Bin Lv, Zheng-He Wang, Dong Shen, Xi-Ru Zhang, Pei-Dong Zhang, Fu-Rong Li, Qing-Mei Huang, Qing Chen, Wei-Qi Song, Xian-Bo Wu, Xiao-Ming Shi, Virginia Byers Kraus, Xingfen Yang, Chen Mao
Journal: Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2020;79(6):829-836
PMID: 32253185
Glucosamine is a non-vitamin, non-mineral specialty supplement commonly used to manage osteoarthritis and joint pain. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between regular glucosamine supplement use and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, respiratory disease and digestive disease. The study is a large-scale prospective cohort study of nearly half a million UK adults. Results indicate that a considerable proportion (19.1%) of the UK population reported regular use of glucosamine supplements. Regular glucosamine use was significantly associated with a 15% lower risk of total mortality and 18% for CVD mortality; 6% for cancer mortality; 27% for respiratory mortality and 26% for digestive mortality. Authors conclude that regular use of glucosamine supplements is associated with lower mortality due to all causes, CVD, cancer, respiratory disease and digestive disease.
OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the associations of regular glucosamine use with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a large prospective cohort.
METHODS
This population-based prospective cohort study included 495 077 women and men (mean (SD) age, 56.6 (8.1) years) from the UK Biobank study. Participants were recruited from 2006 to 2010 and were followed up through 2018. We evaluated all-cause mortality and mortality due to cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, respiratory and digestive disease. HRs and 95% CIs for all-cause and cause-specific mortality were calculated using Cox proportional hazards models with adjustment for potential confounding variables.
RESULTS
At baseline, 19.1% of the participants reported regular use of glucosamine supplements. During a median follow-up of 8.9 years (IQR 8.3-9.7 years), 19 882 all-cause deaths were recorded, including 3802 CVD deaths, 8090 cancer deaths, 3380 respiratory disease deaths and 1061 digestive disease deaths. In multivariable adjusted analyses, the HRs associated with glucosamine use were 0.85 (95% CI 0.82 to 0.89) for all-cause mortality, 0.82 (95% CI 0.74 to 0.90) for CVD mortality, 0.94 (95% CI 0.88 to 0.99) for cancer mortality, 0.73 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.81) for respiratory mortality and 0.74 (95% CI 0.62 to 0.90) for digestive mortality. The inverse associations of glucosamine use with all-cause mortality seemed to be somewhat stronger among current than non-current smokers (p for interaction=0.00080).
CONCLUSIONS
Regular glucosamine supplementation was associated with lower mortality due to all causes, cancer, CVD, respiratory and digestive diseases.
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.
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