Dietary α‐Linolenic Acid, Marine ω‐3 Fatty Acids, and Mortality in a Population With High Fish Consumption: Findings From the PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea (PREDIMED) Study

Background: Epidemiological evidence suggests a cardioprotective role of α‐linolenic acid (ALA), a plant‐derived ω‐3 fatty acid. It is unclear whether ALA is beneficial in a background of high marine ω‐3 fatty acids (long‐chain n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids) intake. In persons at high cardiovascular risk from Spain, a country in which fish consumption is customarily high, we investigated whether meeting the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids recommendation for dietary ALA (0.7% of total energy) at baseline was related to all‐cause and cardiovascular disease mortality. We also examined the effect of meeting the society's recommendation for long‐chain n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (≥500 mg/day). Methods and Results: We longitudinally evaluated 7202 participants in the PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea (PREDIMED) trial. Multivariable‐adjusted Cox regression models were fitted to estimate hazard ratios. ALA intake correlated to walnut consumption (r=0.94). During a 5.9‐y follow‐up, 431 deaths occurred (104 cardiovascular disease, 55 coronary heart disease, 32 sudden cardiac death, 25 stroke). The hazard ratios for meeting ALA recommendation (n=1615, 22.4%) were 0.72 (95% CI 0.56–0.92) for all‐cause mortality and 0.95 (95% CI 0.58–1.57) for fatal cardiovascular disease. The hazard ratios for meeting the recommendation for long‐chain n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n=5452, 75.7%) were 0.84 (95% CI 0.67–1.05) for all‐cause mortality, 0.61 (95% CI 0.39–0.96) for fatal cardiovascular disease, 0.54 (95% CI 0.29–0.99) for fatal coronary heart disease, and 0.49 (95% CI 0.22–1.01) for sudden cardiac death. The highest reduction in all‐cause mortality occurred in participants meeting both recommendations (hazard ratio 0.63 [95% CI 0.45–0.87]). Conclusions: In participants without prior cardiovascular disease and high fish consumption, dietary ALA, supplied mainly by walnuts and olive oil, relates inversely to all‐cause mortality, whereas protection from cardiac mortality is limited to fish‐derived long‐chain n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://www.Controlled-trials.com/. Unique identifier: ISRCTN35739639

Institutional Redesign Proposals for the Preparation of Criminal Policy by the Government. The Focus on Ex Ante Evaluations

As many other countries, Spain is also experiencing a punitive turn in Criminal Justice Policy in the last 15 years, which is taking social narratives about crime and disorder as well as actual punishment to a parallel dimension that is quite often away from reality. While some strategies try to fight back from values and ideology or empirical studies to prove what works as well as the real effects of certain policies, my approach uses very different tools to tackle the issue: First, I´ll defend the suitability of Evaluation knowledge, from a Public Policy Analysis perspective, for the improvement of Criminal Justice Policy. Such perspective conceives Evaluation as much more than just a research tool and provides, in my opinion, a holistic approach that needs to be better connected with Spanish Criminal Justice Policy making in order to have a greater impact on it. Second, to ease such connection, I´ll propose a set of adjustments in the structure and tasks of institutions involved in Criminal Justice Policy creation. It is my view that for Evaluation to be considered a relevant tool in Spanish Criminal Justice Policy there should be some institutional changes I will try to explain in detail.Financiado por el proyecto: "La medición de la exclusión social generada por la política criminal de los países occidentales desarrollados, DER2015-64846-P. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech