Dietary patterns, food groups and myocardial infarction: a case–control study

Abstract

Certain dietary patterns may be related to the risk of CVD. We hypothesised that a plant-centred dietary pattern would be associated with a reduced risk of first myocardial infarction (MI). A case–control study of Norwegian men and postmenopausal women (age 45–75 years) was performed. A FFQ was administered, generally within 3 d after incident MI (n106 cases). Controls (n105) were frequency matched on sex, age and geographic location. On the FFQ, 190 items were categorised into thirty-five food groups and ana priorihealthy diet pattern score was created. We estimated OR using logistic regression with adjustment for energy intake, family history of heart disease, marital status, current smoking, education and age. Among food groups, the risk of MI was significantly higher persdof butter and margarine (OR 1·66 (95 % CI 1·12, 2·46)), and lower persdof tomatoes (OR 0·53 (95 % CI 0·35, 0·79)), high-fat fish (OR 0·57 (95 % CI 0·38, 0·86)), wine (OR 0·58 (95 % CI 0·41, 0·83)), salad (OR 0·59 (95 % CI 0·40, 0·87)), wholegrain breakfast cereals (OR 0·64 (95 % CI 0·45, 0·90)), cruciferous vegetables (OR 0·66 (95 % CI 0·47, 0·93)) and non-hydrogenated vegetable oil (OR 0·68 (95 % CI 0·49, 0·95)). An abundance of cases were found to have a lowa priorihealthy diet pattern score. A dietary pattern emphasising nutrient-rich plant foods and high-fat fish and low intransfatty acids was associated with decreased risk of MI among Norwegians.