Ambika Satija1, Shilpa N Bhupathiraju2, Donna Spiegelman3, Stephanie E Chiuve4, JoAnn E Manson5, Walter Willett6, Kathryn M Rexrode7, Eric B Rimm6, Frank B Hu6. 1. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts. Electronic address: ams131@mail.harvard.edu. 2. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. 3. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Global Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts. 4. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Benefit-Risk Management, Innovative Platforms & Epidemiology, Pharmacovigilance & Patient Safety, AbbVie, North Chicago, Illinois. 5. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Medicine, Brigham and Womens' Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. 6. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts. 7. Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Plant-based diets are recommended for coronary heart disease (CHD) prevention. However, not all plant foods are necessarily beneficial for health. OBJECTIVES: This study sought to examine associations between plant-based diet indices and CHD incidence. METHODS: We included 73,710 women in NHS (Nurses' Health Study) (1984 to 2012), 92,329 women in NHS2 (1991 to 2013), and 43,259 men in Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986 to 2012), free of chronic diseases at baseline. We created an overall plant-based diet index (PDI) from repeated semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire data, by assigning positive scores to plant foods and reverse scores to animal foods. We also created a healthful plant-based diet index (hPDI) where healthy plant foods (whole grains, fruits/vegetables, nuts/legumes, oils, tea/coffee) received positive scores, whereas less-healthy plant foods (juices/sweetened beverages, refined grains, potatoes/fries, sweets) and animal foods received reverse scores. To create an unhealthful PDI (uPDI), we gave positive scores to less-healthy plant foods and reverse scores to animal and healthy plant foods. RESULTS: Over 4,833,042 person-years of follow-up, we documented 8,631 incident CHD cases. In pooled multivariable analysis, higher adherence to PDI was independently inversely associated with CHD (hazard ratio [HR] comparing extreme deciles: 0.92; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.83 to 1.01; p trend = 0.003). This inverse association was stronger for hDPI (HR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.68 to 0.83; p trend <0.001). Conversely, uPDI was positively associated with CHD (HR: 1.32; 95% CI: 1.20 to 1.46; p trend <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Higher intake of a plant-based diet index rich in healthier plant foods is associated with substantially lower CHD risk, whereas a plant-based diet index that emphasizes less-healthy plant foods is associated with higher CHD risk.
BACKGROUND: Plant-based diets are recommended for coronary heart disease (CHD) prevention. However, not all plant foods are necessarily beneficial for health. OBJECTIVES: This study sought to examine associations between plant-based diet indices and CHD incidence. METHODS: We included 73,710 women in NHS (Nurses' Health Study) (1984 to 2012), 92,329 women in NHS2 (1991 to 2013), and 43,259 men in Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986 to 2012), free of chronic diseases at baseline. We created an overall plant-based diet index (PDI) from repeated semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire data, by assigning positive scores to plant foods and reverse scores to animal foods. We also created a healthful plant-based diet index (hPDI) where healthy plant foods (whole grains, fruits/vegetables, nuts/legumes, oils, tea/coffee) received positive scores, whereas less-healthy plant foods (juices/sweetened beverages, refined grains, potatoes/fries, sweets) and animal foods received reverse scores. To create an unhealthful PDI (uPDI), we gave positive scores to less-healthy plant foods and reverse scores to animal and healthy plant foods. RESULTS: Over 4,833,042 person-years of follow-up, we documented 8,631 incident CHD cases. In pooled multivariable analysis, higher adherence to PDI was independently inversely associated with CHD (hazard ratio [HR] comparing extreme deciles: 0.92; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.83 to 1.01; p trend = 0.003). This inverse association was stronger for hDPI (HR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.68 to 0.83; p trend <0.001). Conversely, uPDI was positively associated with CHD (HR: 1.32; 95% CI: 1.20 to 1.46; p trend <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Higher intake of a plant-based diet index rich in healthier plant foods is associated with substantially lower CHD risk, whereas a plant-based diet index that emphasizes less-healthy plant foods is associated with higher CHD risk.
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