Multiple Healthful Dietary Patterns and Type 2 Diabetes in the Women's Health Initiative

Area of Science:

• Nutrition Science
• Epidemiology
• Chronic Disease Prevention

Background:

• The link between diet quality and type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk is not fully understood.
• Existing research shows varied associations with different dietary indices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare four major diet quality indices and their association with T2D risk.
• To examine these associations across different racial/ethnic groups and with/without adjustment for overweight/obesity.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of a large cohort (n=101,504) of postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative.
• Utilized Cox regression to assess T2D risk associated with scores from Alternate Mediterranean Diet Index, Healthy Eating Index 2010, Alternate Healthy Eating Index 2010, and DASH Index.
• Follow-up for incident T2D cases over a median of 15 years.

Main Results:

• Higher scores on all four diet quality indices were associated with significantly lower T2D risk (10%-14% reduction per SD increase).
• Associations remained significant (5%-10% reduction per SD increase) after adjusting for baseline overweight/obesity.
• Inverse associations were consistent across all examined racial/ethnic groups.

Conclusions:

• Multiple healthful dietary patterns are inversely associated with T2D risk in postmenopausal women.
• Diet quality is an important modifiable factor for T2D prevention, independent of weight status.
• Findings support the promotion of various healthy eating patterns for reducing T2D incidence.