Olive oil consumption is associated with lower cancer mortality among Italian adults: prospective results from the Moli-sani Study and analysis of potential biological mechanisms

Abstract

AbstractBackground:Olive oil is a key component of a traditional Mediterranean Diet and itswith cancer mortality is less robust, and it remains unclear whether the health advantages of olive oil may be accounted for by specific biological mechanisms. We therefore sought to investigate the relationship between olive oil consumption with cancer mortality in an Italian general population, and to examine specific biological pathways common to major chronic diseases as possibly underlying these associations.Methods:Longitudinal analysis on 22,895 men and women (mean age 55.4±11.7y) from the Moli-sani Study (enrolment, 2005-2010) followed up for 12.2 years. Olive oil consumption was standardized to a 10 g tablespoon (tbsp) size.Results:Compared with individuals who rarely consumed olive oil (≤1.5 tbsp/d), participants who had the highest consumption (>3 tbsp/d) reported 28% lower rate in cancer death (HR= 0.72; 95% CI: 0.54-0.94), and a linear dose-response relationship was also observed (p value for association=0.030; p for non-linearity =0.47). Among known risk factors analysed, lower levels of blood pressure and resting heart rate associated with consumption of olive oil accounted for 14.5% and 8.1% of its inverse relationship with all-cause and cancer mortality, respectively; all biomarkers here analysed explained 28.0% and 12.3% of such relationships.Conclusions:Higher olive oil consumption was associated with higher survival that was largely driven by a reduction in cancer mortality, independent of overall diet quality. Known risk factors for major chronic diseases mediate only in part such associations suggesting that other biological pathways are potentially involved in this relationship.