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  • Original Article
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Diet quality and mortality: a population-based prospective study of men

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 63, pages 451–457 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

To study quality of diet in relation to all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality.

Subjects/Methods:

The population-based prospective Cohort of Swedish Men (COSM) included 40 837 men, 45–79 years of age, who filled in a FFQ (96 food items) and were CVD- and cancer-free at baseline. Quality of diet was assessed by Recommended Food Score (RFS) based on 36 items and Non-Recommended Food Score (Non-RFS) based on 16 items. Cox's proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) of mortality and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Multivariate HRs for RFS and Non-RFS were adjusted for age, education, physical activity, martial status, self-perceived health status, smoking status, dietary supplements use, WHR, alcohol use, intake of energy and mutually adjusted.

Results:

Between 1998 and 2005, 4501 deaths from all-causes were registered. Between 1998 and 2003, there were 1394 CVD and 759 cancer deaths. High RFS (⩾28) compared with low (⩽20) was associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality (HR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.71–0.91; P-value for trend<0.0001) and CVD mortality (HR: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.54–0.93; P-value for trend=0.003). In contrast, men with high Non-RFS (⩾5) had higher risk of all-cause (HR: 1.21; 95% CI: 1.09–1.34; P-value for trend=0.001) and CVD mortality (HR: 1.27; 95% CI: 1.05–1.54; P-value for trend=0.07) compared to those with low Non-RFS (⩽2 items). No significant associations with cancer mortality were observed.

Conclusions:

Both measures of diet quality, RFS and Non-RFS, showed statistically significant associations with all-cause and CVD mortality (recommended foods inversely while nonrecommended foods positively), but not with cancer mortality.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research and by the Swedish Research Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    J Kaluza, N Håkansson & A Wolk

  2. Department of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Human Nutrition and Consumer Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, Poland

    J Kaluza & A Brzozowska

Authors
  1. J Kaluza
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  2. N Håkansson
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  3. A Brzozowska
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  4. A Wolk
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A Wolk.

Additional information

Contributors: JK, AB and AW were responsible for the study concept and design, AW was responsible for data collection, JK and NH performed statistical analyses, JK wrote the manuscript. AB, JK, NH and AW were responsible for interpreting the results and for critical revision of the manuscript. None of the authors had any financial or personal conflicts of interest. All authors contributed to the final version of the paper and gave their approval to publish this final version.

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Kaluza, J., Håkansson, N., Brzozowska, A. et al. Diet quality and mortality: a population-based prospective study of men. Eur J Clin Nutr 63, 451–457 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602968

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