Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-4ks9w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-12T03:59:32.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dietary patterns and mortality in Danish men and women: a prospective observational study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Merete Osler ,
Berit L. Heitmann ,
Lars U. Gerdes ,
Lillian M. Jørgensen  and
Marianne Schroll
Merete Osler*
Affiliation:
Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3, 2200 N, Copenhagen, Denmark Copenhagen County Center for Preventive Medicine, Unit for Dietary Studies, Glostrup University Hospital, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark
Berit L. Heitmann
Affiliation:
Copenhagen County Center for Preventive Medicine, Unit for Dietary Studies, Glostrup University Hospital, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark
Lars U. Gerdes
Affiliation:
Copenhagen County Center for Preventive Medicine, Unit for Dietary Studies, Glostrup University Hospital, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark
Lillian M. Jørgensen
Affiliation:
Copenhagen County Center for Preventive Medicine, Unit for Dietary Studies, Glostrup University Hospital, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark
Marianne Schroll
Affiliation:
Copenhagen County Center for Preventive Medicine, Unit for Dietary Studies, Glostrup University Hospital, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark
*
*Corresponding author: Dr Merete Osler, fax +453 535 1181, email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The analysis of dietary patterns emerged recently as a possible approach to examining diet–disease relation. We analysed the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality associated with dietary patterns in men and women, while taking a number of potential confounding variables into account. Data were from a prospective cohort study with follow-up of total and cause-specific mortality. A random sample of 3698 men and 3618 women aged 30–70 years and living in Copenhagen County, Denmark, were followed from 1982 to 1998 (median 15 years). Three dietary patterns were identified from a twenty-eight item food frequency questionnaire, collected at baseline: (1) a predefined healthy food index, which reflected daily intakes of fruits, vegetables and wholemeal bread, (2) a prudent and (3) a Western dietary pattern derived by principal component analysis. The prudent pattern was positively associated with frequent intake of wholemeal bread, fruits and vegetables, whereas the Western was characterized by frequent intakes of meat products, potatoes, white bread, butter and lard. Among participants with complete information on all variables, 398 men and 231 women died during follow-up. The healthy food index was associated with reduced all-cause mortality in both men and women, but the relations were attenuated after adjustment for smoking, physical activity, educational level, BMI, and alcohol intake. The prudent pattern was inversely associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality after controlling for confounding variables. The Western pattern was not significantly associated with mortality. This study partly supports the assumption that overall dietary patterns can predict mortality, and that the dietary pattern associated with the lowest risk is the one which is in accordance with the current recommendations for a prudent diet.

Keywords

Dietary patternFollow-up studyFactor analysisMortality
Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , February 2001 , pp. 219 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 2001

References

Albanese, D, Conway, JM, Taylor, PR, Moe, PW & Judd, J (1990) Validation and comparison of eight physical activity questionnaires. Epidemiology 1, 65–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barker, ME, McClean, SI, Strain, JJ & Thompson, KA (1992) Dietary behaviour and health in Northern Ireland: an exploration of bichemical and haematological associations. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 46, 151–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beaudry, M, Galibois, I & Chaumette, P (1998) Dietary patterns of adults in Quebec and their nutritional adequacy. Canadian Journal of Public Health 89, 347–351.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fraser, GE, Sabate, J, Beeson, WL & Stratan, TM (1992) A possible protective effect of nut consumption on risk of coronary heart disease. The adventist health study. Archives Internal Medicine 152, 1416–1424.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gerdes, LU, Brønnum-Hansen, H, Madsen, M, Borch-Johnsen, K, Jørgensen, T, Sjøl, A & Schroll, M (2000) Trends in selected biological risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in the Danish MONICA population 1982–1992. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 53, 427–434.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gex-Fabry, M, Raymond, L & Jeanneret, O (1988) Multivariate analysis of dietary patterns in 939 Swiss adults: sociodemographic and alcohol consumption profiles. International Journal of Epidemiology 17, 548–555.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hu, FB, Rimm, EB, Smith-Warner, SA, Feschanich, D, Stampfer, MJ, Ascherio, A, Sampres, L & Willett, WC (1999) Reproducability and validity of dietary patterns assessed with a food-frequency questionnaire. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 69, 243–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huijbregts, P, Feskens, E, Räsänen, L, Fidanza, K, Nissinen, A, Menotti, A & Kromhout, D (1997) Dietary pattern and 20 year mortality in elderly men in Finland, Italy and the Netherlands: longitudinal cohort study. British Medical Journal 315, 13–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jørgensen, LM (1992) Who completes seven-day food records? European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 46, 735–741.Google ScholarPubMed
Kahn, HA, Philips, RL, Snowdon, DA & Choi, WS (1984) Associations between reported diet and all-cause mortality. American Journal of Epidemiology 119, 775–784.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kant, AK (1996) Indexes of overall diet quality: a review. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 96, 785–791.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kant, AK, Schatzkin, A, Graubard, BI & Schairer, C (2000) A prospective study of diet quality and mortality in women. Journal of the American Medical Association 283, 2109–2115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kant, AK, Schatzkin, A, Harris, TB, Ziegler, RG & Block, G (1993) Dietary diversity and subsequent mortality in the first national health and nutrition examination survey epidemiologic follow-up study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 57, 434–440.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kumagai, S, Shibata, H, Watanabe, S, Suzuki, T & Haga, H (1999) Effect of food intake pattern on all cause mortality in the community elderly: a 7-year longitudinal study. Journal of Nutrition Health and Ageing 3, 29–33.Google ScholarPubMed
Kushi, LH, Meyer, KA & Jacobs, DR (1999) Cereals, legumes, and chronic disease risk reduction: evidence from epidemiological studies. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 70(Suppl.), 451–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ness, AR & Powles, JW (1997) Fruit and vegetables and cardiovascular disease: A review. International Journal of Epidemiology 26, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nube, M, Kok, FJ, Vandenbroucke, JP, Heide-Wessel, Cvd & Heide, RMvd (1987) Scoring of prudent dietary habits and its relation to 25-years survival. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 87, 171–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osler, M & Heitmann, BL (1996) The validity of a short food frequency questionnaire and its ability to measure changes in food intake. International Journal of Epidemiology 25, 1023–1030.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prevost, AT, Whichelow, MJ & Cox, BD (1997) Longitudinal dietary changes between 1984–5 and 1991–2 in British adults: association with sociodemographic, lifestyle and health factors. British Journal of Nutrition 78, 873–888.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slattery, M, Boucher, KM, Caan, BJ, Potter, JD & Ma, K (1998) Eating patterns and risk of colon cancer. American Journal of Epidemiology 148, 4–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trichopoulou, A, Kouris-Blazos, A, Wahlqvist, M, Gnardellis, C, Laigon, P, Poluchronopoulos, P, Vassilakou, T, Lipworth, L & Trichopoulos, D (1995) Diet and overall survival in elderly people. British Medical Journal 311, 1457–1460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Willett, WC (1998) Nutritional Epidemiology pp.1–514, NewYork, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, DEM, Prevost, AT, Whichelow, MJ, Cox, BD, Day, NE & Wareham, NJ (2000) A cross-sectional study of dietary patterns with glucose intolerance and other features of the metabolic syndrome. British Journal of Nutrition 83, 257–266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed