Association Between MIND Diet Adherence and Mortality: Insights from Diabetic and Non-Diabetic Cohorts

To date, evidence regarding the protective roles of the Mediterranean-Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is scarce. This study aims to estimate the impact of adhering to the MIND diet on the mortality in patients with and without T2DM.

In this cohort study, 6887 participants (1021 patients with T2DM) from the NHANES dataset were analyzed. The exposure is the MIND diet adherence. The primary outcomes are all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) deaths.

We documented 1087 all-cause deaths consisting of 377 CV deaths during the follow-up (median time of 10 years). Among participants with T2DM, those with a high MIND score (> 8.0, range of MIND score: 4.5-13) had a significantly lower risk of all-cause death (hazard ratio [HR] 0.75, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.59, 0.96, P = 0.021) and CV death (HR 0.50, 95% CI: 0.29, 0.87, P = 0.014) compared to those with a low MIND score (≤ 8.0). In participants without T2DM, a high MIND score was associated with a significant decrease in the risk of all-cause death (HR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.70, 0.99, P < 0.001), but the association with CV death risk was not statistically significant.

This study uncovered significant associations between the MIND diet and decreased risk of all-cause and CV death in patients with T2DM. The findings highlight the potential benefits of following the MIND diet in managing and enhancing the outcomes of individuals with T2DM.