Abstract
Objective
To examine the associations between dietary patterns in midlife and likelihood of
future healthy ageing in Chinese older adults.
Design
Prospective population-based study.
Setting and Participants
We included 14,159 participants aged 45-74 years who were free from cancer, cardiovascular
disease, or diabetes at baseline (1993-1998) from the Singapore Chinese Health Study.
Methods
Dietary intakes in midlife were assessed by a validated food frequency questionnaire
at baseline. Diet quality was scored according to the alternate Mediterranean diet
(aMED), the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, the alternative Healthy
Eating Index (AHEI)–2010, overall plant-based diet index (PDI), and healthful plant-based
diet index (hPDI). Healthy ageing was assessed at the third follow-up visit (2014-2016),
which occurred about 20 years after the baseline visit, and was defined as the absence
of 10 chronic diseases, no impairment of cognitive function, no limitations in instrumental
activities of daily living, no clinical depression at screening, good overall self-perceived
health, good physical functioning, and no function-limiting pain among participants
who had survival to at least 65 years of age. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression
models were applied to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs)
for the association between each dietary pattern score and healthy ageing.
Results
About 20.0% of participants met the healthy ageing criteria. The OR (95% CI) for healthy
ageing comparing the highest with the lowest quartile of diet quality scores was 1.52
(1.31-1.77) for aMED, 1.53 (1.35-1.73) for DASH, 1.39 (1.23-1.57) for AHEI-2010, 1.34
(1.18-1.53) for PDI, and 1.45 (1.27-1.65) for hPDI (all P-trend < .001). Each standard deviation increment in different diet quality scores
was associated with 12% to 18% higher likelihood of healthy ageing.
Conclusions and Implications
In this Chinese population, adherence to various healthy dietary patterns at midlife
is associated with higher likelihood of healthy ageing at later life.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 18, 2020
Footnotes
This work was supported by the Singapore National Medical Research Council (NMRC/CSA/0055/2013) and the United States National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (UM1 CA182876 and R01 CA144034), and the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore. A.P. is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0907504) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81930124). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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