Adventist Health Studies

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Adventist Health Studies (AHS) is a series of long-term medical research projects of Loma Linda University with the intent to measure the link between lifestyle, diet, disease and mortality of Seventh-day Adventists.

Due in part to their unique dietary habits, Seventh-day Adventists have a lower risk than other Americans of certain diseases. This provides a special opportunity to answer scientific questions about how diet and other health habits affect the risk of suffering from many chronic diseases.^[1]

Two studies on Adventist health involving 24,000 and 34,000 Californian Adventists were conducted over the last 40 years. Although not sponsored by the Adventist church itself, the church is supportive of the studies. These studies have been the subject of significant national media coverage on programs such as ABC News: World News Tonight, Good Morning America and in the National Geographic feature article Longevity: The Secrets of a Long Life.^[2]

There is a third larger ongoing study that includes Adventists throughout the United States and Canada.

1 Adventist Mortality Study
- 1.1 Findings
2 Adventist Health Study 1 (AHS-1)
- 2.1 Findings
3 Adventist Health Study 2 (AHS-2)
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Adventist Mortality Study

The first major study of Adventists begun in 1960, has become known as the Adventist Mortality Study. Consisting of 22,940 California Adventists it entailed an intensive 5-year follow-up and a more informal 25-year follow-up.

[edit] Findings

Adventist Mortality Study (1960-1965) did indicate that Adventist men lived 6.2 years longer than non-Adventist men in the concurrent American Cancer Society Study and Adventist women had a 3.7-year advantage over their counterparts. These statistics were based on life table analyses."^[3]

[edit] Adventist Health Study 1 (AHS-1)

An additional study (1974-1988) was comprised of approximately 34,000 Californian Adventists over 25 years of age. Unlike the mortality study, the purpose was to find out which components of the Adventist lifestyle give protection against disease.

[edit] Findings

The data from the study have been studied for more than a decade and the findings are numerous - linking diet to cancer^[4] and coronary heart disease.^[5] ^[6]

[edit] Adventist Health Study 2 (AHS-2)

The current study which began in 2002 woth a goal of 125,000 Adventists continues to explore the links between lifestyle, diet and disease among the broader base of Seventh-day Adventists in America and Canada. As of May 2006 it has an enrollment of 96,741.^[7] Dr. Gary Fraser with a team of researchers from the School of Public Health, Loma Linda University is conducting the study which is funded by the National Cancer Institute.