title: Healthy food and nutrient index and all cause mortality.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a Healthy Food and Nutrient Index (HFNI) and to relate this index to the all cause mortality observed in two Belgian communities.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using the 10-years follow-up mortality data from the 'Belgian Inter-university Research on Nutrition and Health' (BIRNH) study, the association of a Healthy Food and Nutrient Index (HFNI) and all cause mortality was investigated in 5,887 men and 5,306 women aged 25-74 years. The HFNI was developed on the basis of the national dietary guidelines. The higher the index the more the diet can be considered to conform to the recommendations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After adjustment for classic all cause mortality risk factors, HFNI was related with mortality for men. A decrease in risk of death is noted from Quartile 1 to Quartile 4. Among the women, HFNI remains non-significant. The ability of the models (with and without HFNI) to discriminate the living and the dead was evaluated by constructing a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. For all models, areas under the Roc curves were between 0.80 and 0.85 indicating that all models discriminate well alive subjects of deceased. However, comparison of the areas under the ROC curves of the models without HFNI with the ROC areas of the models with HFNI showed no improvement in our ability to discriminate between the living and the dead.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although it is not demonstrated in our study, we think that the overall approach offers an opportunity to improve our understanding of the role of diet in the risks of morbidity or mortality associated with the overall dietary pattern rather than some individual foods and nutrients.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Epidemiology & Health Promotion, School of Public Health, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 808 Route de Lennik, 1070 Bruxelles, Belgium. christine.bazelmans@ulb.ac.be
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bazelmans
authors.forename: Stefaan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Henauw
authors.forename: Christof
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Matthys
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dramaix
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kornitzer
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Backer
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Levêque
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001530:Belgium; D002423:Cause of Death; D004032:Diet; D015930:Diet Records; D004034:Diet Surveys; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D012372:ROC Curve