Mediterranean diet and incidence and mortality of coronary heart disease and stroke in women

In this study, we prospectively assessed the association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and risk of incident coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke. 74,886 women aged 38‐63 in the Nurses' Health Study, without a history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes were followed from 1984 to 2004. We computed an alternate Mediterranean diet score from dietary data collected through validated food frequency questionnaires administered 6 times during follow‐up. Relative risks for incident CHD, stroke, and combined fatal CVD were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for CVD risk factors. During 20 years of follow‐up, 2391 incident cases of CHD, 1763 incident cases of stroke, and 1077 CVD deaths (fatal CHD and strokes combined) were ascertained. Women in the top aMed quintile were at lower risk for both CHD and stroke compared with the bottom quintile (RR=0.71 (95%CI=0.62‐0.82; p trend< 0.0001) for CHD; RR=0.87 (95% CI=0.73‐1.02; p trend=0.03) for stroke). CVD mortality was significantly lower among women in the top quintile of the aMed (RR=0.61, 95g% CI=0.49‐0.76, p trend<0.0001). Conclusion Greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with a lower risk of incident CHD and stroke in women. Funded by NIH grants CA87969, HL60712, HL34594, HL88521.