Association of healthy eating index 2020 and its components with systemic inflammatory biomarkers among U.S. general adults: a large nationwide cross-sectional study

Abstract

Abstract Background Prolonged chronic inflammation is a risk of various chronic health disorders. Dietary patterns have been associated with inflammation. Healthy eating index 2020 (HEI-2020) has been associated with health status. However, the association of HEI-2020 and its components with systemic inflammatory biomarkers is not examined. Methods Participants aged 20 years and older with completed information on two reliable dietary recalls, blood cell counts and demographic characteristics were recruited from 6 NHANES circles from 2007 to 2018. Weighted general linear methods were used for evaluated associations of healthy eating index 2020 (HEI-2020) and its components with systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) and systemic inflammation response index (SIRI). Weighted quantile regression (WQS) models and quantile g-computation (QGC) models were used to evaluated the mixed effects and weights of HEI-2020 components for SII and SIRI. Results HEI-2020 was negatively associated with SII and SIRI. The values of β (95% CI) of ln-transformed SII and SIRI for continuous HEI-2020 were − 0.0025(-0.0031, -0.0019) and − 0.0024(-0.0028, -0.0019). High scores of whole fruits, whole grains, added sugars, seafood and plant proteins, total vegetables, fatty acids, saturated fats, and greens and beans were associated with lower ln-transformed SII and SIRI. WQS models and QGC models supported the negative the association between the mixed components and systemic inflammation and demonstrated that high consumption of whole fruits and whole grains, and low consumption of added sugars were the main contributors of the HEI-2020 benefited against systemic inflammation. Conclusions Higher HEI-2020 was associated with lower systemic inflammation. Whole fruits, whole grains, and added sugars were the top three contributive components of HEI-2020 for systemic inflammation. The findings provide the anti-inflammation dietary recommendations based on the DGA.