Household budget survey nutritional data in relation to mortality from coronary heart disease, colorectal cancer and female breast cancer in European countries

Abstract

and 2 ± 10 See Appendix for af®liations and list of participants of the DAFNE I and II projects Objective: We have undertaken a study to examine whether Household Budget Survey (HBS)-derived nutritional patterns are related to mortality from diseases with strong nutritional components, namely coronary heart disease, colorectal cancer and cancer of the female breast. Design: Ecological correlation study. In the context of the Data Food Networking projects of the European Union, raw data from the national HBS of 10 European countries were provided. For each of the 10 participating countries, daily food availability per capita around 1990 was calculated. Individual foods were aggregated into 12 major food groups that were linked with the diseases under consideration. Mortality data were available from a World Health Organisation database. We have used a composite score to summarise the postulated in¯uence of diet. Setting: Ten European countries circa 1990. Results: The correlation coef®cients between the composite score and the age-adjusted mortality from each of the studied diseases were: 0.51 (P~0.14) for colorectal cancer; 0.72 (P~0.02) for female breast cancer; and 0.60 (P~0.07) for coronary heart disease, after adjustment for tobacco smoking. Conclusions: We conclude that dietary information from HBS is suf®ciently reliable to reveal correlations with mortality rates from chronic diseases with fairly strong nutritional roots. HBS data could be used, with little cost, for monitoring secular trends in dietary patterns with a view to their health implications. Sponsorship: The DAFNE I and II projects were funded by the European Commission, in the context of thè Cooperation in Science and Technology with Central and Eastern European Countries' and`Agriculture and

Nutritional habits in the Mediterranean Basin. The macronutrient composition of diet and its relation with the traditional Mediterranean diet. Multi-centre study of the Mediterranean Group for the Study of Diabetes (MGSD)

“…Further studies in Greece, conducted between 1980 and 1988 in both sexes, in urban and rural areas, comprising in total more than 1000 subjects, confirmed the composition of the Mediterranean diet as shown on Table 6 (Kafatos et al, 1991;Trichopoulou et al, 1993a,b). The health benefits of this diet comprising both lower morbidity and mortality, have been attributed to (a) high intake of monounsaturated fat rather than a low fat intake in general, since fat intake contributed more than 40% of the energy, (b) high complex carbohydrate intake, mainly grains and legumes and (c) high fibre intake, mostly from vegetables and fruit (Trichopoulou et al, 1995a,b;Kouris-Blazos et al, 1999;Lagiou et al, 1999). Some other, less well-defined components of the diet, as polyphenols, alpha linolenic acid etc, may also contribute to the cardioprotective effects of the Mediterranean diet (Trichopoulou et al, 1995a,b).…”

Consumption of dairy products in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort: data from 35955 24-hour dietary recalls in 10 European countries

“…Another source of comparable data on dairy product availability in 14 European countries is the DAFNE (DAta Food NEtworking) databank, which comprises food availability data collected with a similar methodology through national household budget surveys conducted with country-representative population samples 46,47 . The DAFNE data, referring to foods entering the household, are readily available on the Internet (DafneSoft program, http://www.nut.uoa.gr).…”

Cereal grains and coronary heart disease

“…An ecological between-countries study Recently, household budget data from 10 European countries were related to national mortality statistics for CHD, breast cancer and colorectal cancer (Lagiou et al, 1999) (Table 6). Simple correlation between total cereals and CHD mortality gave a coefficient of þ 0.13, ie a small positive association.…”