Healthy Nordic diet and risk of disease death among men: the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study

Abstract

Purpose To investigate the association between healthy Nordic diet and risk of disease death in middle-aged and older men from eastern Finland. Methods A total of 1547 men aged 42-60 years and free of cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer and type 2 diabetes at baseline in 1984-1989 were included. Diet was assessed with 4-day food records at baseline and the healthy Nordic diet score was calculated based on the Baltic Sea Diet Score. The incidence of death was assessed by a computer linkage to the national cause of death register. Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to estimate the associations between the healthy Nordic diet score and mortality. Results During the mean follow-up of 23.6 years (SD 7.0), 576 men died due to disease: 250 due to CVD, 194 due to cancer and 132 due to other diseases. The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) in the lowest vs. the highest quartile of the healthy Nordic diet score were 1.27 (1.01-1.59) for any disease death (P-trend across quartiles < 0.001), 1.39 (0.99-1.97, P-trend = 0.049) for CVD death, 1.26 (0.84-1.89, P-trend = 0.316) for cancer death and 1.04 (0.65-1.68, P-trend = 0.563) for other disease deaths. Conclusions In this prospective population-based cohort study among middle-aged and older men, low adherence to a healthy Nordic diet was associated with a higher risk of any disease death, possibly largely attributable to higher CVD mortality.

Depression and loneliness may have a direct connection without mediating factors

“…An estimate of the average number of hours slept at night was obtained using self-administered questionnaires [21]. Slightly modified Baltic Sea Diet Scores (BSDS) were calculated based on four-day food records collected at baseline [22].…”

A healthy Nordic diet score and risk of incident CHD among men: the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study

“…Because of the limited number of studies, our aim was to examine the association between healthy Nordic diet, based on a modified Baltic Sea Diet Score, and risk of CHD in the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (KIHD), a population of middle-aged and older men from eastern Finland. We have previously reported that a low adherence to a healthy Nordic diet was associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease death in this study population (24) . We additionally investigated the associations with risk factors of CHD, including blood pressure, serum lipid profile and serum CRP.…”

“…Possible multicollinearity was checked using variance inflation factors, which all were under 2, indicating no multicollinearity. The analyses were adjusted for relevant covariates, based on established risk factors for CHD and our previous investigation of the association between a healthy Nordic diet score and mortality risk (24) : The Model 1 included age (years), examination year and energy intake (kcal/day). The multivariable Model 2 included variables in the Model 1 and pack-years of smoking, leisure-time physical activity (kcal/day), education (years), marital status (yes/no), income (euros/year), and use of medications (hypercholesterolemia and hypertension medication and aspirin).…”

A Simple Chart to Communicate Health-behaviors-associated Mortality

“…The index, considered as a validated measure of diet quality based on commonly consumed foods in Nordic countries, summarizes six foods and food group variables and three nutrient variables (supplementary material 1). [23] We excluded alcohol from the healthy HND index, because we used alcohol consumption as a separate factor. Physical activity was assessed by several methods including self-recordings and interviews.…”