Healthy eating patterns and risk of total and cause specific mortality

Dietary Guidelines recommend multiple healthy eating patterns. However, few studies have examined the associations of adherence to different dietary patterns with long-term risk of total and cause-specific mortality. In a cohort study of the prospective cohorts of the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, with up to 36 years follow-up, greater adherence to various healthy eating patterns was consistently associated with lower risk of total and cause-specific mortality. In the pooled cohorts, the HR of cancer-specific mortality per 25-percentile increment of the Healthy Eating Index 2015, Alternate Mediterranean Diet, Healthful Plant-based Diet, and Alternate Healthy Eating Diet decreased 18% (HR 0.82; 95% CI 0,78-0,86), 7% (0.93; 0.90-0.96), 10% (0.90; 0.86-0.95), and 6% (0.84; 0.81-0.88), respectively.