Healthy Nordic diet and risk of disease death among men: the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the association between healthy Nordic diet and risk of disease death in middle-aged and older men from eastern Finland. Methods: A total of 1547 men aged 42–60 years and free of cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer and type 2 diabetes at baseline in 1984–1989 were included. Diet was assessed with 4-day food records at baseline and the healthy Nordic diet score was calculated based on the Baltic Sea Diet Score. The incidence of death was assessed by a computer linkage to the national cause of death register. Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to estimate the associations between the healthy Nordic diet score and mortality. Results: During the mean follow-up of 23.6 years (SD 7.0), 576 men died due to disease: 250 due to CVD, 194 due to cancer and 132 due to other diseases. The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) in the lowest vs. the highest quartile of the healthy Nordic diet score were 1.27 (1.01–1.59) for any disease death (P-trend across quartiles < 0.001), 1.39 (0.99–1.97, P-trend = 0.049) for CVD death, 1.26 (0.84–1.89, P-trend = 0.316) for cancer death and 1.04 (0.65–1.68, P-trend = 0.563) for other disease deaths. Conclusions: In this prospective population-based cohort study among middle-aged and older men, low adherence to a healthy Nordic diet was associated with a higher risk of any disease death, possibly largely attributable to higher CVD mortality.