Consumption of traditional Mediterranean foods is associated with reduced cardiovascular mortality

Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jul;86(1):221-9.
Dietary patterns and cardiovascular mortality in the Melbourne Collaborative
Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Despite increased cardiovascular disease risk factors, migrants
to Australia from Mediterranean countries have lower mortality than do
native-born Australians. Dietary patterns may contribute to this. OBJECTIVE:
The objective was to investigate the relation between dietary patterns and
mortality from cardiovascular (CVD) and ischemic heart disease (IHD) in an
ethnically diverse population. DESIGN: This was a prospective cohort study
(mean follow-up: 10.4 y) of 40 653 volunteers (23 980 women) aged 40-69 y in
the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study (1990-1994); 24% of the subjects
were Mediterranean born. RESULTS: Four dietary factors were identified from
a food-frequency questionnaire with the use of principal components
analysis. They explained 69% of intake variance and reflected frequent
intakes of Mediterranean foods, vegetables, meat, and fresh fruit. The
Mediterranean factor was inversely associated with CVD and IHD mortality in
models adjusting for diabetes, waist-to-hip ratio, body mass index, and
hypertension. For IHD, the hazard ratio (HR) for the highest compared with
the lowest quartile of consumption was 0.59 (95% CI: 0.39, 0.89; P for trend
= 0.03). Associations persisted in analyses excluding people with prior CVD
(HR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.30, 0.88; P for trend = 0.03). Vegetable and fresh
fruit factors were inversely associated with CVD mortality but only among
those without prior CVD. HRs (highest compared with lowest quartile) were
0.66 (95% CI: 0.48, 0.92; P for trend = 0.02) for vegetables and 0.69 (95%
CI: 0.52, 0.93; P for trend = 0.04) for fresh fruit. The meat factor was not
associated with CVD or IHD mortality. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that
frequent consumption of traditional Mediterranean foods is associated with
reduced cardiovascular mortality after controlling for important risk
factors and country of birth.

PMID: 17616784 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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