title: Adherence to the Mediterranean diet is associated with a higher BMD in middle-aged and elderly Chinese.
abstract: Previous studies showed that better adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) is associated with lower risk of chronic diseases, but limited data are available on bone health. We investigated the association of the MD with bone mineral density (BMD) in Chinese adults. We included 2371 participants aged 40-75 years in this community-based cross-sectional study. Dietary information was assessed at baseline and a 3-year follow-up. Alternate Mediterranean diet (aMed) scores were calculated. BMD was determined at the second survey. After adjusting for potential covariates, higher aMed scores were positively and dose-dependently associated with BMD (all P-trends < 0.05). The BMD values were 1.94% (whole body), 3.01% (lumbar spine), 2.80% (total hip), 2.81% (femur neck), 2.62% (trochanter), and 2.85% (intertrochanter) higher in the quintile 5 (highest, vs. quintile 1) aMed scores for all of the subjects (all P-values < 0.05). Similar associations were found after stratifying by gender (P-interaction = 0.338-0.968). After excluding the five non-significant components of vegetables, legumes, fish, monounsaturated to saturated fat ratio, and alcohol intake from the aMed scores, the percentage mean differences were substantially increased by 69.1-150% between the extreme quintiles. In conclusion, increased adherence to the MD shows protective associations with BMD in Chinese adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics &Epidemiology and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition, and Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Geng-Dong
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics &Epidemiology and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition, and Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Wei
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics &Epidemiology and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition, and Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Ying
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics &Epidemiology and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition, and Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Hui-Yuan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics &Epidemiology and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition, and Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics &Epidemiology and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition, and Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Ming
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015519:Bone Density / Q000502:physiology*; D038441:Diet, Mediterranean; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance