Inflammatory potential of diet and risk of cardiovascular disease or mortality: A meta-analysis

Xiaoming Zhong,Guanchang Cheng,Lei Zhang,Yanming Li,Lin Guo,Ruili He

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-06455-x

Abstract

Inconsistent findings have reported on the inflammatory potential of diet and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality risk. The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the association between the inflammatory potential of diet as estimated by the dietary inflammatory index (DII) score and CVD or mortality risk in the general population. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed and Embase databases through February 2017. All prospective observational studies assessing the association of inflammatory potential of diet as estimated by the DII score with CVD and all-cause, cancer-related, cardiovascular mortality risk were included. Nine prospective studies enrolling 134,067 subjects were identified. Meta-analyses showed that individuals with the highest category of DII (maximal pro-inflammatory) was associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality (hazard risk [HR] 1.22; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.06–1.41), cardiovascular mortality (RR 1.24; 95% CI 1.01–1.51), cancer-related mortality (RR 1.28; 95% CI 1.04–1.58), and CVD (RR 1.32; 95% CI 1.09–1.60) than the lowest DII score. More pro-inflammatory diets, as estimated by the higher DII score are independently associated with an increased risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, cancer-related mortality, and CVD in the general population, highlighting low inflammatory potential diet may reduce mortality and CVD risk.

Highlights

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer are the leading causes of death worldwide1, 2
The main finding of this meta-analysis indicates that more pro-inflammatory diets, as estimated by the higher dietary inflammatory index (DII) score are independently associated with the increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause, cancer-related, cardiovascular mortality in the general population
The Healthy Eating Index23, Alternate Healthy Eating Index24, and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Score25 are the most frequently used diet indexes. All of these healthy dietary patterns were associated with a decreased risk of all-cause mortality24

Summary

Introduction

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer are the leading causes of death worldwide . Adopting healthy dietary pattern may be the first step in reducing inflammation-associated chronic diseases. Several studies have examined the association between inflammatory potential of diet as measured by the DII score and mortality or CVD risk in the general population. To the best of our knowledge, no previous a systematic review or meta-analysis has addressed this issue We conducted this meta-analysis of available prospective studies to examine the association of pro-inflammatory diets as estimated by the higher DII score with CVD and mortality risk in the general population

Methods

Results

Conclusion