Mediterranean diet adherence may be associated with improved cardiovascular health in adult women

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1. In this cross-sectional study, a higher Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) score was associated with improvements in several cardiovascular outcomes, including cardiovascular risk score, blood pressure, and body mass index (BMI) in adults.

2. However, women demonstrated a significant association between MedDiet scores and multiple cardiovascular outcomes, while men only showed a significant association between MedDiet scores and lower BMI.

Evidence Rating Level: 2 (Good)

Cardiovascular diseases affect a large proportion of the aging population and have high morbidity and mortality. Diet is an important component of managing cardiovascular disease risks, and studies have suggested that the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) is beneficial in improving cardiovascular risk, particularly in men. This study sought to further evaluate the effect of MedDiet adherence on cardiovascular risk factors in adult men and women.

This cross-sectional study included 533 adult participants living in the UK (60% women) from the PREVENT Dementia cohort. Participants were included in the PREVENT cohort if they consented to participation and did not have dementia at baseline. Participants were excluded from analyses if they had missing exposure, outcome, and covariate data. Baseline data was collected from the PREVENT dataset. MedDiet adherence was assessed using 3 different scores: the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) score, the MEDAS continuous score, and the Pyramid score. Scores were determined based on self-reported food consumption of 175 foods over the last 2-3 months using the Scottish Collaborative Group Good Frequency Questionnaire (SCG-FFQ). Cardiovascular outcomes included the cardiovascular risk score using the Framingham Risk Score and the QRisk3 scoring method, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), fasting blood glucose level, triglycerides, and cholesterol level. The primary outcome was the association between MedDiet adherence and cardiovascular risk.

The results demonstrated that higher MedDiet scores were associated with lower blood pressure, BMI, and cardiovascular risk scores. Women demonstrated significant associations between MedDiet scores and lower blood pressure, BMI, and glycemia, while men only demonstrated a significant association between MedDiet scores and lower BMI. However, this study was limited by the self-reported nature of MedDiet adherence, which may have introduced social desirability bias and the lack of diversity in the study participants, which limited its generalizability. Nonetheless, the results suggested that MedDiet adherence may be associated with an improved cardiovascular risk profile, especially in adult women.

Click to read the study in Nutrition, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Diseases

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