High fruit intake may reduce mortality among middle-aged and elderly men. The Study of Men Born in 1913

Abstract

Objective: A number of long-term population-based studies have tried to study fruit and vegetable consumption in relation to cardiovascular disease, cancer and total mortality. Few of these studies are based on randomly selected population samples. The aim of the study was to investigate the long-term effect of fruit and vegetable consumption on mortality, cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular death, cancer morbidity and cancer death among middle-aged and elderly men. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: General community. The Study of Men Born in 1913. Subjects: 792 men at age 54 who participated in a screening examination in 1967. Main outcome measures: A food frequency questionnaire was used to obtain information of the dietary habits in 730 of the men (92%). All men were followed up with repeated examinations until the age of 80. Results: Cardiovascular as well as total mortality was signi®cantly lower among men with high fruit consumption in univariate analysis. There was no correlation between fruit or vegetable consumption in relation to cancer incidence, cancer death and cardiovascular disease. In multivariate survival analysis where smoking, cholesterol and hypertension were taken into account, there was a signi®cantly lower mortality among men with a high fruit consumption during 16 y follow up until the age of 70 (P 0.042), but this ®nding was no longer statistically signi®cant during 26 y follow-up at the age of 80 (P 0.051). Conclusions. Daily fruit consumption seems to have positive effect on long-term survival independently of other traditional cardiovascular risk factors like smoking, hypertension and cholesterol. Sponsorship: This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Medical Research Council (K98-274-06276-17) King Gustav V and Queen Victoria's Foundation, and the Go Èteborg University.

Sociodemographic inequalities in the diet of young children in the 1946 British birth cohort

“…The most socially deprived regions of Scotland have the highest mortality from coronary heart disease in Britain, and evidence from the Scottish Heart Health Study 29,30 suggested that lack of fruit and vegetables in the diet may possibly play a role in addition to the classical risk factors for cardiovascular disease. In agreement with this was a study of elderly Swedish men who had been followed for 26 years 31 , since daily fruit consumption seemed to have a positive effect on longterm survival independently of traditional risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure and plasma cholesterol.…”

Effect Size Estimates of Lifestyle and Dietary Changes on All-Cause Mortality in Coronary Artery Disease Patients

“…These studies, however, are inconclusive because they often lack appropriate adjustments for confounding (eg, confounding by age because obese persons are generally 7 years younger at time of their first MI than normal-weight individuals), but they stress the need for high-quality additional research. Finally, population-based cohort studies that study all-causes mortality in relation to the intake of fruits and vegetables, [87][88][89][90] whole grains, 87,91,92 legumes, 93 nuts, 94,95 or salt 96 -98 are scarce but are generally supportive of a protective effect of the recommendations.…”

The impact of inter-generational social and regional circumstances on dietary intake patterns of British adults: results from the 1946 British Birth Cohort

“…However, studies of a London cohort showed that cardiovascular risk factors in adulthood are more strongly related to adult than to childhood socio-economic circumstances 5 . Alongside this, epidemiological evidence suggests that certain foods, in particular fruit and vegetables, protect against CVD 6,7 and some cancers 8 , and that a high intake of dietary fat is associated with increased risk for CVD, obesity and type II diabetes 9 .…”