Mortality Risk Linked to Changes in Diet Quality

Improving diet quality was associated with a reduced mortality risk, according to a recent study.

In the study, the researchers calculated adjusted hazard ratios for total and cause-specific mortality using data from the Nurses’ Health Study, which included a cohort 47,994 women, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which included a cohort of 25,745 men. Changes in diet quality were assessed using the Alternate Healthy Eating Index-2010 score, the Alternate Mediterranean Diet Score, and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet score.
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Compared with participants who had a relatively stable diet quality (0% to 3%), the pooled hazard ratios for all-cause mortality for patients who had the greatest improvement in diet quality (13% to 33%) during the 12-year period were 0.91 based on changes in the Alternate Healthy Eating Index score, 0.84 based on changes in the Alternate Mediterranean Diet score, and 0.89 based on changes in the DASH score.

A 20-percentile increase in diet scores was significantly associated with reduced total mortality of 8% to 17% when using all 3 diet indexes, and a 7% to 15% reduction for cardiovascular disease-associated mortality when using the Alternate Healthy Eating Index and Alternate Mediterranean Diet Score.

Those who maintained a high-quality diet for 12 years had a significantly lower risk of death from any cause compared with those who had consistently low diet scores. A high-quality diet reduced the risk of death by 14%, 11%, and 9% based on the Alternate Healthy Eating Index score, the Alternate Mediterranean Diet score, and the DASH score, respectively.

“Improved diet quality over 12 years was consistently associated with a decreased risk of death,” the researchers concluded.

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

Sotos-Prieto M, Bhupathiraju SN, Mattei J, et al. Association of Changes in Diet Quality with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality [published online July 13, 2017]. N Engl J Med. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1613502.