Abstract MP54: The Health Burdens Attributable to Suboptimal Diet in the US - a National Comparative Risk Assessment

Abstract

Background: Suboptimal diet has become the leading cause of death and disability globally and in the US. Yet, the specific contributions of different dietary factors to poor health in the US are not established. Objective: To estimate the burdens of 12 key dietary factors on major chronic diseases in the US, overall and by age, sex, and disease. Methods: We used a comparative risk assessment framework to develop consistent and comparable methods to identify specific dietary factors with evidence for etiologic effects on coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, diabetes, and cancers; estimate current national intake levels and their uncertainty, by age and sex; quantify etiologic effects of each diet-disease relationship, by age; and characterize optimal consumption levels of each dietary factor. We combined these inputs with national disease-specific deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) to estimate burdens attributable to each dietary factor overall, and by age, sex, and disease. We quantified uncertainty using probabilistic simulation analyses for all our estimates. Results: In 2010, the 5 leading dietary causes of chronic disease mortality and morbidity in the US were low fruits, low nuts/seeds, high sodium, low vegetables, and high processed meats ( Figure ). Most dietary factors contributed to CHD burden. Leading causes of cancer mortality were low fruits, high processed meats, low milk, low vegetables, and high red meats. Leading causes of diabetes morbidity were high sugar-sweetened beverages, high processed meats, low whole grains, and high red meats. Conclusions: Our findings revealed a major impact of specific dietary factors on poor health in the US. Our study calls for policies and coordinated, multi-stakeholder efforts to improve diet in the US.