Low-inflammatory diet improves chronic disease-free survival

A low-inflammatory diet appears to reduce the risk and slow the accumulation of multimorbidity in adults, particularly in those aged >60 years, according to a study. 

Some 102,424 participants without chronic disease (mean age 54.7 years, 54.8 percent female) from the UK Biobank were followed to monitor their multimorbidity trajectory (annual change in the number of 59 chronic diseases). 

The authors separately calculated the baseline inflammatory diet index (IDI) and empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP) from the weighted sum of 32 posteriori-derived (15 anti-inflammatory) and 18 prior-defined (nine anti-inflammatory) food groups, which were tertiled into low-, moderate-, and high-inflammatory diet. 

Linear mixed effects model, Cox model, and Laplace regression with adjustment for potential confounders were used for the data analysis. 

Of the participants, 15,672 developed one chronic condition and 35,801 developed two or more during a median follow-up of 10.23 years. 

Individuals who adhered to a low-inflammatory diet had a lower multimorbidity risk (IDI: hazard ratio [HR], 0.84, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.81–0.86; EDIP: HR, 0.91, 95 percent CI, 0.89–0.94) and a slower multimorbidity accumulation (IDI: β, –0.033, 95 percent CI, –0.036 to –0.029; EDIP: β, –0.006, 95 percent CI, –0.010 to –0.003) than those with a high-inflammatory diet. 

The protective effect of a low-inflammatory diet was more noticeable among participants aged >60 years (IDI: β, –0.051, 95 percent CI, –0.059 to –0.042; EDIP: β, –0.020, 95 percent CI, –0.029 to –0.012; both pinteractions<0.05). 

The 50th percentile difference of chronic disease-free survival increased by 0.81 years (95 percent CI, 0.64–0.97) for participants with a low IDI and by 0.49 years (95 percent CI, 0.34–0.64) for those with a low EDIP. Higher IDI and EDIP correlated with the development of four and three multimorbidity clusters, respectively, especially for cardiometabolic diseases. 

“A low-inflammatory diet may prolong chronic disease-free survival time,” the authors said.