The effect of phytosterol supplementation on lipid profile: A critical umbrella review of interventional meta‐analyses

Despite multiple investigations assessing the impact of phytosterol supplementation on serum lipid levels, there is still a great deal of debate regarding the benefits of this intervention in the management of dyslipidemia. Therefore, we aimed at clarifying this dilemma by conducting the present umbrella review of interventional meta‐analyses. Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE were used to search for pertinent publications on the effect of phytosterol supplementation on the lipid profile in humans up to June 2023. To compute the overall effect size (ES) and confidence intervals (CI), the random‐effects model was used. The I2 statistic and Cochrane's Q‐test were applied to estimate the heterogeneity among the studies. Seventeen meta‐analyses with 23 study arms were included in the umbrella meta‐analysis. Data pooled from the 23 eligible arms revealed that phytosterol supplementation reduces low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL‐C) (ES = −11.47 mg/dL; 95% CI: −12.76, −10.17, p