Table 1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria | Exclusion criteria |
|---|---|
Populations: humans only | Populations: those including: |
Adults 18+ years of age | Non-human subjects (e.g., in vitro, cell, stem cell, or animal studies) |
Healthy adults | |
Adults at an increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) | Children and adolescents (< 18 years old) |
Adults who had existing CVD | Pregnant or lactating women |
Cancer survivors who were cancer-free at the time of the study | Adults with prior organ transplantation |
All elderly unless clear disease (e.g., renal disease) | Adults with chronic, inflammatory, or autoimmune disease conditions (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, chronic kidney disease) |
100% smokers | |
Participants in concurrent cancer or exercise trials | |
Studies with < 10 subjects | |
Interventions: | Interventions: |
Foods, beverages, supplements, or extracts that described or defined flavan-3-ol content either as monomers or polymers | Did not evaluate a specific intervention (e.g., spice blend, dietary patterns rich in flavan-3-ol food sources) |
Foods with no or low flavan-3-ol content (e.g., white chocolate, raisins) | |
Example foods: fruits (e.g., apples, berries, grapes), dark chocolate, cocoa, teas, red wine) | |
Foods with insufficient data to allow a reasonable estimation of flavan-3-ol content using standardized databases [16,17,18] | |
Studies must quantify flavan-3-ols consumed or provide sufficient data that allowed estimation of the flavan-3-ol content via standardized databases1 [16,17,18] | Did not specify the type of wine (e.g., white, red, rice), alcohol, or chocolate (e.g., dark, white, or milk chocolate) in their questionnaires and/or reported results |
Comparators of interest: | Comparators of interest: |
Low or no flavan-3-ol content, including placebos | Studies that did not differentiate flavan-3-ol content (e.g., a study evaluating the effects of alcohol comparing red wine vs. de-alcoholized red wine) |
Outcomes of interest: | Outcomes of interest: |
Key clinical and intermediate outcomes (Table 2)2 | Clinical and intermediate outcomes of interest (Table 2) that do not meet the minimum follow-up requirements |
Study designs of interest: | Study designs of interest: |
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) | Cross-sectional studies |
Prospective cohort studies | Case reports |
Case series | |
Retrospective studies | |
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses3 | |
Reviews, lectures, opinion articles, news articles, proposed studies (i.e., no results reported) |