Highest adherence to a plant-based dietary pattern was associated with a lower risk of incident heart failure hospitalization compared to the lowest quartile (HR 0.59; 95% CI 0.41-0.86; p=0.004).
Cohort (n=16,068)
Yes
Does adherence to specific dietary patterns reduce incident heart failure hospitalizations in US adults without known coronary disease?
Adherence to a plant-based dietary pattern is associated with a significantly lower risk of incident heart failure in US adults without known coronary disease.
Hazard Ratio: 0.59 (95% CI 0.41–0.86)
p-value: p=0.004
Background: Dietary patterns and associations with incident heart failure (HF) are not well established in the United States. Objectives: Determine associations of 5 dietary patterns with incident HF hospitalizations among US adults. Methods: The REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) is a prospective cohort of black and white adults followed from 2003-2007 through 2014. Inclusion criteria included completion of a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and no baseline coronary heart disease or HF. Five dietary patterns (Convenience, Plant-based, Sweets, Southern, and Alcohol/Salads) were derived from principal component analysis. The primary endpoint was incident HF hospitalization. Results: We included 16,068 participants (mean age of 64.0 years SD 9.1, 58.7% women, 33.6% black participants, 34.0% residents of the stroke belt). After a median of 8.7 years of follow up, 363 participants had incident HF hospitalizations. Compared to the lowest quartile, the highest quartile of adherence to the Plant-based dietary pattern was associated with a 41% lower risk of HF in multivariable-adjusted models (HR 0.59 95% CI 0.41, 0.86, p=0.004). Highest adherence to the Southern dietary pattern was associated with a 72% higher risk of HF after adjusting for age, sex and race and for other potential confounders education, income, region of residence, total energy intake, smoking, physical activity, and sodium intake; HR 1.72 (95% CI 1.20, 2.46), p=0.005. However, the association was attenuated and no longer statistically significant after further adjusting for BMI in kg/m2, WC, hypertension, dyslipidemia, DM, AF, and CKD. No statistically significant associations were observed with incident HFrEF or HFpEF hospitalizations and the dietary patterns. No associations were observed with the other 3 dietary patterns. Conclusions: Adherence to a Plant-based dietary pattern was inversely associated with incident HF risk, while the Southern dietary pattern was positively associated with incident HF risk.
“This study represents an important step forward in establishing a robust evidence base for the dietary prevention of heart failure.”
Lara et al. (2019) conducted a cohort in incident heart failure (n=16,068). Plant-based dietary pattern vs. Lowest quartile of adherence was evaluated on incident HF hospitalization (HR 0.59, 95% CI 0.41-0.86, p=0.004). Highest adherence to a plant-based dietary pattern was associated with a lower risk of incident heart failure hospitalization compared to the lowest quartile (HR 0.59; 95% CI 0.41-0.86; p=0.004).