Abstract 17285: Frequent Consumption of Meals Prepared at Home and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Among American Men and Women

Introduction: The frequency of eating meals prepared at home (MPAH) decreased among Americans over the last 50 years. Eating out has been associated with poor diet quality and weight gain in adolescents and adult. Few studies have examined MPAH frequency in relation to diabetes risk. Hypothesis: Having MPAH is associated with lower risk of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). Methods: We followed 57,994 women in the Nurses’ Health Study and 41,679 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study from 1986 to 2012. Participants were free of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer at baseline. Weekly frequencies of consuming MPAH were collected at baseline, and summed up as overall MPAH. Results: Participants with more MPAH had higher intake of whole grains, total and low-fat dairy products, fruits, and vegetables, and lower sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) at baseline. However, MPAH turned to be associated with more red meat and low coffee intakes. MPAH was moderately associated with less weight gain during follow-up. Compared to those with 0-6 overall MPAH/week, women with 11-14 MPAH/week had 0.45±0.08kg less weight gain over 8 years, whereas men had 0.41±0.07 kg less weight gain (P<0.001) for the same comparison. During 2.3 million person-years of follow-up, 8959 T2D cases were identified and confirmed in both cohorts. After multivariate adjustment of demographic and lifestyle factors, pooled hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of T2D were 0.96 (0.90, 1.01), 0.96 (0.87, 1.06), 0.88 (0.83, 0.94) for participants who had 7-8, 9-10, and 11-14 MPAH/week (P for trend<0.001), comparing with those eating 0-6 MPAH/week. Each additional MPAH for lunch was associated with 2% lower risk of T2D, whereas the corresponding value was 4% for dinner (P<0.001 for both). These findings were attenuated when BMI or SSB were further adjusted: the hazard ratio comparing participants with 11-14 MPAH/week to those with 0-6 MPAH/week were 0.95 (0.90, 1.01; P for trend=0.13) with adjusting of BMI, and 0.94 (0.89, 1.00; P for trend=0.09) with adjustment of SSB. Conclusions: These findings suggest that eating more MPAH is associated with a lower risk of T2D overtime, and this relationship may be partly ascribed to less weight gain and lower SSB intake by those who prepare their own meals at home more often.