title: Adherence to dietary guidelines and mortality: a report from prospective cohort studies of 134,000 Chinese adults in urban Shanghai.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A higher adherence to dietary recommendations, such as the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) and the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), has been associated with lower morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases in Western populations. However, the health benefits of following the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese remain unknown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We examined adherence to the Chinese Food Pagoda (CHFP) in association with total and cause-specific mortality and compared associations with those of the DASH and AHEI.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants included 61,239 men and 73,216 women (aged 40-74 y) from 2 population-based prospective studies in Shanghai, China. Habitual dietary intakes were assessed at baseline in-person interviews by using validated food-frequency questionnaires. Deaths and underlying causes were identified through the Shanghai Vital Statistics Registry and follow-up home visits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We documented 2954 deaths in men and 4348 deaths in women during mean follow-ups of 6.5 and 12.0 y, respectively. A higher CHFP score was associated with lower total mortality with multivariable-adjusted HRs of 0.67 (95% CI: 0.60, 0.75) in men and 0.87 (95% CI: 0.80, 0.95) in women when extreme quartiles were compared (both P-trend < 0.005). Decreased risks associated with a higher CHFP score were observed for cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes mortality, particularly in men. A significantly lower total mortality was shown for adherence to specific recommendations on vegetables, fruit, legumes, fish, and eggs but not grains, dairy, meat, fat, and salt. A higher DASH score and AHEI also predicted lower mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes but not cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A greater compliance with Chinese or US dietary guidelines is associated with lower total mortality in Chinese adults. Favorable associations are more evident in men than women and more consistent for cardiometabolic mortality than cancer mortality.
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN (DY, XZ, GY, WZ and X-OS), and the Department of Epidemiology, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, China (Y-BX, HL, and Y-TG).
authors.forename: Danxia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN (DY, XZ, GY, WZ and X-OS), and the Department of Epidemiology, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, China (Y-BX, HL, and Y-TG).
authors.forename: Xianglan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN (DY, XZ, GY, WZ and X-OS), and the Department of Epidemiology, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, China (Y-BX, HL, and Y-TG).
authors.forename: Yong-Bing
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN (DY, XZ, GY, WZ and X-OS), and the Department of Epidemiology, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, China (Y-BX, HL, and Y-TG).
authors.forename: Gong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN (DY, XZ, GY, WZ and X-OS), and the Department of Epidemiology, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, China (Y-BX, HL, and Y-TG).
authors.forename: Honglan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN (DY, XZ, GY, WZ and X-OS), and the Department of Epidemiology, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, China (Y-BX, HL, and Y-TG).
authors.forename: Yu-Tang
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN (DY, XZ, GY, WZ and X-OS), and the Department of Epidemiology, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, China (Y-BX, HL, and Y-TG).
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN (DY, XZ, GY, WZ and X-OS), and the Department of Epidemiology, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, China (Y-BX, HL, and Y-TG).
authors.forename: Xiao-Ou
authors.initials: XO
authors.lastname: Shu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000208:ethnology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014504:Urban Health / Q000208:ethnology