Dietary inflammatory index and bone mineral density in Mexican population

Dietary inflammatory index has been associated with bone loss. In this longitudinal study, we reported that changes in dietary inflammatory index were associated with a reduction in bone mineral density of the total hip and femoral neck in males and females ≥ 45 years, but not in individuals < 45 years.

Previous studies have suggested that an inflammatory environment can affect bone mineral density (BMD). However, most of the studies have been done in postmenopausal women. Thus, longitudinal studies in different age groups and sex are necessary to evaluate the longitudinal association between dietary inflammatory index (DII) and BMD in Mexican adults.

A total of 1,486 participants of the Health Workers Cohort Study were included in this study. The DII was estimated with data retrieved through a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Total hip, femoral neck, and lumbar spine BMD were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Linear regression models for cross-sectional associations and fixed effects linear regression models for longitudinal association were estimated, and both models were stratified by sex and age groups (< 45 and ≥ 45 years).

We did not observe cross-sectional associations between DII and the different BMD sites at baseline. In contrast, women and men ≥ 45 years in the 25th quartile of changes in DII were associated with a gain of 0.067 g/cm² and 0.062 g/cm² of total hip BMD, while those in the 75th quartile of DII was associated with a reduction of - 0.108 g/cm² and - 0.100 g/cm², respectively. These results were similar for femoral neck BMD in women. In contrast, we did not observe association with femoral neck BMD in men. We did not observe statistically significant changes for lumbar spine BMD.

Our data suggest that changes in the DII score are associated with changes in total hip and femoral neck BMD among Mexican population.