Skip to main content
NUTRITION 2024 Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Back

Session: President's Oral Session: Abstracts of Distinction (Oral 33)

(OR33-03-24) Optimal Dietary Patterns for Healthy Aging: Two Large US Prospective Cohort Studies

Tuesday, July 2, 2024
10:24 AM – 10:36 AM CT
Location:  W375D
DJPJ ELPC
Objectives: The global population is aging, and diet is a leading behavioral risk factors for chronic disease burden in US older adults. Yet, the optimal dietary pattern for promoting healthy aging remains underexplored. We examined the association of long-term adherence to dietary patterns with healthy aging.

Methods: Participants included 70,467 women (Nurses’ Health Study) and 36,464 men (Health Professionals Follow-Up Study) free of chronic diseases at baseline in 1986. Adherence to eight dietary patterns, including alternative healthy eating (AHEI), alternative Mediterranean diet (AMED), dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH), Mediterranean-DASH intervention for neurodegenerative delay diet (MIND), healthful plant-based diet (hPDI), planetary health diet (PHD), empirical dietary index for hyperinsulinemia (EDIH), empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP), was assessed every 4 years using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Healthy aging was defined as surviving to age ≥70 years while maintaining good self-reported cognitive function, physical function, mental health, and free of chronic diseases in 2016. Multivariable logistic regressions were used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results: Over 30 years of follow-up, 9,837 (9.2%) participants achieved healthy aging. Higher adherence to all dietary patterns was significantly associated with greater odds of healthy aging. The ORs (95%CI) comparing the highest quintile to the lowest ranged from 1.43 (1.32, 1.54) to 1.85 (1.70, 2.00), the hPDI showing the weakest association and the AHEI showing the strongest. Higher adherence to all dietary patterns was also associated with the healthy aging components. In food group associations, higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, unsaturated fats, nuts, legumes, and low-fat dairy were associated with greater odds of healthy aging; and higher intakes of trans fat, sodium, total meats, red and processed meats were inversely associated.

Conclusions: Higher long-term adherence to healthy dietary patterns was associated with greater odds of healthy aging, particularly the AHEI. Our findings may inform dietary guidelines to foster healthy and independent living among older adults.

Funding Sources: NIH, CIHR