Changes in Diet Quality over 10 Years and Subsequent Mortality from Cardiovascular Disease in the Multiethnic Cohort Study

Abstract

This study investigated how diet quality changes over a ten-year period, assessed using the following four diet quality indexes, the Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015), Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI-2010), alternate Mediterranean Diet (aMED), and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), were related to mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the Multiethnic Cohort Study. The analysis included 61,361 participants who completed both the 1993–1996 baseline survey and the 2003–2008 10-year follow-up surveys. Over the mean follow-up period of 13 years after the 10-year survey, 4174 deaths from CVD were identified. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using multivariable Cox models. Increases in diet quality scores were associated with a reduced risk of CVD mortality for all indexes: HRs per one SD increment of 0.94 to 0.99 (HR (95% CI), 0.96 (0.92–1.01) for HEI-2015, 0.96 (0.91–1.01) for AHEI-2010, 0.99 (0.94–1.04) for aMED, and 0.94 (0.89–0.99) for DASH) in men and 0.88 to 0.92 (0.88 (0.84–0.92) for HEI-2015, 0.90 (0.85–0.95) for AHEI-2010, 0.89 (0.84–0.95) for aMED, and 0.92 (0.87–0.96) for DASH) in women. The inverse association generally did not vary by race and ethnicity, age, body mass index, smoking, and hypertension in each sex. Our findings suggest that improving diet quality and maintaining a high-quality diet over time may help reduce the risk of CVD mortality and could also be beneficial for those at higher risk of CVD.