Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and all-cause mortality risk in an elderly Italian population: Data from the ILSA study

• Published in: The Journal of nutrition, health & aging Vol. 21; no. 5; pp. 505 - 513
• Main Authors: Limongi, F., Noale, Marianna, Gesmundo, A., Crepaldi, G., Maggi, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Paris Springer Paris 01-05-2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Cardiovascular disease; Cause of Death; Diet, Mediterranean; Feeding Behavior; Female; Geriatrics/Gerontology; Humans; Italy - epidemiology; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mortality; Neurosciences; Nutrition; Primary Care Medicine; Proportional Hazards Models; Prospective Studies; Quality of Life Research; Risk Factors; Italy; Mediterranean diet adherence; ILSA study; elderly subjects; all-cause mortality
• ISSN: 1279-7707; 1760-4788
• DOI: 10.1007/s12603-016-0808-9

Objective
The aim of this study was to evaluate adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) and its association with all-cause mortality in an elderly Italian population.
Design
Data analysis of a longitudinal study of a representative, age stratified, population sample.
Setting
Study data is based upon the Italian Longitudinal Study on Aging (ILSA) a prospective, community-based cohort study. The baseline evaluation was carried out in 1992 and the follow-up in 1996 and 2000.
Participant
Participant food intake assessment was available at baseline for 4,232 subjects; information on survival was available for 2,665 at the 2000 follow-up.
Measurements
Adherence to the MD was evaluated with an a priori score based on the Mediterranean pyramid components. Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the relationship between the MD score and all-cause mortality. Six hundred and sixty five subjects had died at the second follow-up (identified up to the first and second follow-up together; mean follow-up: 7.1±2.6 years).
Results
At the 2000 follow-up, adjusting for other confounding factors, participants with a high adherence to MD (highest tertile of the MD score distribution) had an all-cause mortality risk that was of 34% lower with respect to the subjects with low adherence (Hazard Ratio=0.66; 95% CI: 0.49-0.90; p=0.0144).
Conclusion
According to study results, a higher adherence to the MD was associated with a low all-cause mortality risk in an elderly Italian population.