Observational studies between magnesium int- ake and risk of type 2 diabetes yielded inconsistent results. We conducted a system literature search of PubMed database through March 2015 for prospective cohort studies of magnesium intake and type 2 diabetes risk. Study-specific results were pooled in a random-effects model. Subgroup and sensitivity analysis were performed to assess the potential sources of heterogeneity and the robustness of the pooled estimation. Generalized least squares trend estimation was used to investigate the dose-response relationship. A total of 15 papers with 19 analyses were identified with 539,735 participants and 25,252 incident diabetes cases. Magnesium intake was associated with a significant lower risk of type 2 diabetes (RR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.71-0.82) for the highest compared with lowest category. This association was not significantly modified by the pre-specified study characteristics. In the dose-response analysis, a magnesium intake increment of 100 mg/day was associated with a 16% reduction in type 2 diabetes risk (RR: 0.84; 95% CI: 0.80-0.88). A nonlinear relationship existed between magnesium intake and type 2 diabetes (P-nonlinearity=0.003). This meta-analysis further verified a protective effect of magnesium intake on type 2 diabetes in a nonlinear dose-response manner.
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