The EPIC-Norfolk Study
Mediterranean diet and type 2 diabetes risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study: the InterAct project.
Diabetes care 2011 ; 34: 1913-8.
InterAct Consortium, Romaguera D, Guevara M, Norat T, Langenberg C, Forouhi NG, Sharp S, Slimani N, Schulze MB, Buijsse B, Buckland G, Molina-Montes E, Sánchez MJ, Moreno-Iribas MC, Bendinelli B, Grioni S, van der Schouw YT, Arriola L, Beulens JW, Boeing H, Clavel-Chapelon F, Cottet V, Crowe FL, de Lauzon-Guillan B, Franks PW, Gonzalez C, Hallmans G, Kaaks R, Key TJ, Khaw K, Nilsson P, Overvad K, Palla L, Palli D, Panico S, Quirós JR, Rolandsson O, Romieu I, Sacerdote C, Spijkerman AM, Teucher B, Tjonneland A, Tormo MJ, Tumino R, van der AD, Feskens EJ, Riboli E, and Wareham NJ
DOI : 10.2337/dc11-0891
PubMed ID : 21788627
PMCID : PMC3161259
URL : https://care.diabetesjournals.org/lookup/doi/10.2337/dc11-0891
Abstract
To study the association between adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern (MDP) and risk of developing type 2 diabetes, across European countries.
We established a case-cohort study including 11,994 incident type 2 diabetic case subjects and a stratified subcohort of 15,798 participants selected from a total cohort of 340,234 participants with 3.99 million person-years of follow-up, from eight European cohorts participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. The relative Mediterranean diet score (rMED) (score range 0-18) was used to assess adherence to MDP on the basis of reported consumption of nine dietary components characteristic of the Mediterranean diet. Cox proportional hazards regression, modified for the case-cohort design, was used to estimate the association between rMED and risk of type 2 diabetes, adjusting for confounders.
The multiple adjusted hazard ratios of type 2 diabetes among individuals with medium (rMED 7-10 points) and high adherence to MDP (rMED 11-18 points) were 0.93 (95% CI 0.86-1.01) and 0.88 (0.79-0.97), respectively, compared with individuals with low adherence to MDP (0-6 points) (P for trend 0.013). The association between rMED and type 2 diabetes was attenuated in people <50 years of age, in obese participants, and when the alcohol, meat, and olive oil components were excluded from the score.
In this large prospective study, adherence to the MDP, as defined by rMED, was associated with a small reduction in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in this European population.