Adherence to a Mediterranean-like Diet as a Protective Factor Against COPD: A Nested Case-Control Study

A diet rich in nutrients has been suggested to have protective effects against the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Since the traditional Mediterranean diet is high in nutrients, including antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, it is of interest to study as a protective factor against COPD. Our aim was therefore to study its associations with development of COPD using population-based prospective data from the Västerbotten Intervention Programme (VIP) cohort. Data on diet from 370 individuals, who later visited the Department of Medicine at the University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden, with a diagnosis of COPD, were compared to 1432 controls. Adherence to a Mediterranean diet was assessed by a modified version of the Mediterranean diet score (MDS). Cases were diagnosed with COPD 11.1 years (mean) (standard deviation [SD] 4.5 years) after first stating their dietary habits in the VIP at a mean age of 55.5 years (SD 6.6 years). Higher MDS was associated with a higher level of education and not living alone. After adjustment for co-habiting and education level, individuals with an intermediate MDS and those with the highest MDS had a lower odds of developing COPD (odds ratio [OR] 0.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.56–0.95; OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.37–0.86, respectively). These results remained also after adjustment for smoking intensity, i.e., numbers of cigarettes smoked per day (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.53–0.99; OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.35–0.97), respectively). To conclude, adherence to a Mediterranean-like diet seems to be inversely associated with the development of COPD.</p

Additional file 1 of Towards objective measurements of habitual dietary intake patterns: comparing NMR metabolomics and food frequency questionnaire data in a population-based cohort

Supplementary Material

Flow chart diagram.

<p>Description of number of study participants and dropouts, data collection and analyses and caries status at 3 years of age.</p

PCoA clustering analysis by age.

<p>Red dots indicate samples from the 3-month-old infants, and blue dots indicate samples from the 3-year-olds.</p

Genera prevalence.

<p>Prevalence at 3-months and 3-years of age of genera detected in >50% of the children at 3 years of age.</p

Species/phylotype prevalence.

<p>Prevalence at 3-months and 3-years of age of species/phylotypes detected in all (100%) of the children at 3 years of age.</p

Rarefaction curves.

<p>Curves from children at 3 months and 3 years of age, stratified by caries development at 3 years of age. Comparisons include 11 children with caries, and 11 caries-free children.</p

PCoA clustering analysis by caries status.

<p>The upper figure (A) shows the microbiota variation between 3-month-old infants who developed caries at 3 years of age (red dots) and those who did not (blue dots). The lower figure (B) shows the microbiota variation between 3-year-old children who had caries (red dots) and those who did not (blue dots).</p

Flow diagram of the study population.

Flow diagram of the study population.</p

Phyla prevalence.

<p>Prevalence at 3-months and 3-years of age of detected phyla.</p