Dubai: The old saying that an apple a day keeps the doctor away may not be completely true.

If you really want to avoid getting seriously ill, you need to do more than just stock up a basket of apples on a regular basis, a new research published by Jama Internal Medicine suggests this week.

In a study that included more than 8,000 American adults, doctors were not able to find strong evidence to establish that eating an apple a day can help people fend off diseases that require an overnight hospital stay or a visit to a mental health professional.

The good news, however, is that those who diligently eat their apples tend to use fewer prescription medications.

Matthew A. Davis, D.C. M.P.H., Ph.D. of the University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, and co-authors had analysed some data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey to find out if apple eaters tend to visit doctors less. The study spanned two years, from 2007 to 2008 and from 2009 to 2010.

The apple eaters, 753 individuals, who consumed at least one small apple per day or 149 grams of raw apple, and the non-apple eaters (7,646 people) were asked to fill out a dietary recall questionnaire.

Those who ate apples on a regular basis had higher educational attainment, were less likely to smoke and were from a racial or ethnic minority.

The experts tried to compare the two groups by checking if the participants had more than one self-reported visit to a doctor during the past 12 months.

About four in ten (39 per cent) of apple eaters avoided doctor visits, and so did 33.9 per cent of non-apple eaters.

However, when doctors took into account the socio-demographic and health-related characteristics of the survey participants, they found no significant statistical difference.

What they did find is that apple eaters were “marginally more successful at avoiding prescription medications.”

“Our findings suggest that the promotion of apple consumption may have limited benefit in reducing national health care spending. In the age of evidence-based assertions, however, there may be a merit to saying ‘An apple a day keeps the pharmacist away,’” the doctors conclude.

Apple consumption has long been associated with a number of health benefits, including reduced cardiovascular disease risk.

A previous Women’s Health Study involving 40,000 female respondents had found that women consuming apples enjoyed up to 22 per cent decrease in heart-related disease risk.

In a separate research, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, involving at least 34,000 women, it was found that apples helped reduce the risk of postmenopausal women dying from coronary heart and cardiovascular diseases.