Changes in diet quality and body weight over 10 years: the Multiethnic Cohort Study.

Minji Kang,Loic Le Marchand,Carol J Boushey,Song-Yi Park,Yurii B Shvetsov,Veronica W Setiawan,Hee-Young Paik,Lynne R Wilkens

doi:10.1017/s000711452100012x

Abstract

High-quality diets have been found to be beneficial in preventing long-term weight gain. However, concurrent changes in diet quality and body weight over time have rarely been reported. We examined the association between 10-year changes in diet quality and body weight in the Multiethnic Cohort Study. Analyses included 53977 African Americans, Native Hawaiians, Japanese Americans, Latinos and Whites, who completed both baseline (1993-1996, 45-69 years) and 10-year follow-up (2003-2008) surveys including a FFQ and had no history of heart disease or cancer. Using multivariable regression, weight changes were regressed on changes in four diet quality indexes, Healthy Eating Index-2015, Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010, alternate Mediterranean Diet and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension scores. Mean weight change over 10 years was 1·2 (sd 6·8) kg in men and 1·5 (sd 7·2) kg in women. Compared with stable diet quality (< 0·5 sd change), the greatest increase (≥ 1 sd increase) in the diet scores was associated with less weight gain (by 0·55-1·17 kg in men and 0·62-1·31 kg in women). Smaller weight gain with improvement in diet quality was found in most subgroups by race/ethnicity, baseline age and baseline BMI. The inverse association was stronger in younger age and higher BMI groups. Ten-year improvement in diet quality was associated with a smaller weight gain, which varied by race/ethnicity and baseline age and BMI. Our findings suggest that maintaining a high-quality diet and improving diet quality over time may prevent excessive weight gain.

Highlights

Dietary recommendations, such as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, emphasise the importance of following a healthy eating pattern across the lifespan to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight and to reduce the risk of chronic disease[1]
A large US cohort study found that increases in AHEI-2010, aMED and Abbreviations: AHEI, Alternative Healthy Eating Index; aMED, alternate Mediterranean Diet; DASH, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension; diet quality indexes (DQI), diet quality index; HEI, Healthy Eating Index; MEC, Multiethnic Cohort Study; QFFQ, quantitative FFQ
Using the data from the MEC, we examined the associations of changes in diet quality assessed by four DQI (HEI-2015, AHEI-2010, aMED and DASH) with body weight change over 10 years, and whether the associations varied by race/ethnicity, age and BMI at baseline

Summary

Introduction

Dietary recommendations, such as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, emphasise the importance of following a healthy eating pattern across the lifespan to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight and to reduce the risk of chronic disease[1]. Several diet quality indexes (DQI) including the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), the alternate Mediterranean Diet (aMED) and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) scores have been developed to assess overall dietary patterns[1,2,3,4,5]. The Multiethnic Cohort Study (MEC), consisting of participants primarily of five race/ethnicities, African American, Native Hawaiian, Japanese American, Latino and White, has collected information on eating habits and body weight at baseline and 10-year follow-up surveys. Using the data from the MEC, we examined the associations of changes in diet quality assessed by four DQI (HEI-2015, AHEI-2010, aMED and DASH) with body weight change over 10 years, and whether the associations varied by race/ethnicity, age and BMI at baseline

Methods

Results

Conclusion