To investigate the prospective association between a vegetarian diet and chronic degenerative diseases in two cohorts of Taiwanese Buddhists

The Tzu Chi Vegetarian Study (TCVS) recruited 12062 community volunteers of the Buddhists Tzu Chi Foundation throughout Taiwan in the year 2005. All participants completed a self-administered questionnaire on basic information, medical history, lifestyle, and diet.

The Tzu Chi Health Study (TCHS) recruited 6002 participants who came to the Buddhist Tzu Chi Dalin General Hospital for health examination. All participants were interviewed on basic information, medical history, lifestyle, and diet. Biochemical and anthropometric data was collected through a health examination:

Biochemical variables: CBC, fasting glucose, lipid profile (TCH, LDL, HDL, TG), BUN, Cr, ALT, AST, and UA. In addition, homocysteine, serum vitamin B12, folate, and C-reactive protein (CRP) are available for 1500 subjects.

Blood: Extra blood samples have been obtained and stored for 3500 subjects and will be available for future investigation.

Anthropometric variables: body weight, height, waist circumference, % body fat (with BIA), blood pressure, pulse wave velocity, bone mineral density through DXA (at spine for female and hip for male), lung function test (spirometric), abdominal sonography, colonoscopy, esophageal-gastro-duodenal-scopy, chest X-ray, KUB.

Follow-up: Individual baseline data were linked to the National Health Insurance Database and the National Death Registry to ascertain disease outcomes at the Health and Welfare Data Science Center.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants who consent to be followed.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Participants with inaccurate ID which make linkage to NHIRD impossible.
• Participants already with study outcome (disease) prior to enrollment in the study.
• Participants with missing covariates

Participants in the Tzu Chi Vegetarian Study were all certified volunteers of the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation. Participants of the Tzu Chi Health Study were the ones who came to the Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital for health examination and agree to join the cohort study (77% were certified Tzu Chi volunteers). About 1/3 of both cohorts were vegetarians at enrollment.

The disease outcome data from the National Health Insurance Database belongs to the Ministry of Health in Taiwan. Access to these data requires permission and formal application to the Health and Welfare Data Science Center, Ministry of Health in Taiwan. This is regulated by local law and regulation to protect individual personal information. Our research team does not have the right to release any data other than summarized results in the forms of peer-reviewed publications, for noncommercial purposes.