Does Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet Influence CD or UC Risk?

High adherence to the Mediterranean diet may lower the risk of later-onset Crohn disease (CD), according to the findings of a recent study. Although, it did not appear to affect the risk for ulcerative colitis (UC).

The prospective cohort study included 83,147 participants from age 45 to 79 years who were enrolled in the Cohort of Swedish Men and Swedish Mammography cohort. Participants completed validated food frequency questionnaires, which were used to calculate their adherence score to a modified Mediterranean diet (mMED) at baseline in 1997. Using the Swedish Patient Register, the researchers identified diagnoses of CD and UC, as well as calculated hazard ratios (RA).

The researchers identified a total of 164 incident cases of CD and 395 incident cases of UC through December 2017, with an average follow-up of 17 years. The prevalence of poor adherence to the Mediterranean diet, defined as mMED scores of 0 to 2, was 27% in the study cohorts. 

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“Higher mMED score was associated with a lower risk of CD but not UC,” the researchers said. There was a statistically significant lower risk of CD among participants with higher mMED scores compared with those in the lowest category of mMED scores (HR 0.42; 95% CI, 0.22-0.80). However, the risk for UC did not differ between the highest and lowest categories of mMED scores (HR 1.08; 95% CI 0.74-1.58). Furthermore, these associations were not modified by age, sex, education level, body mass index, or smoking, the researchers added.

In addition, based on the prevalence of poor adherence, the researchers found that the population attributable risk for later-onset CD was 12%.

“In two prospective studies, greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet was associated with a significantly lower risk of later-onset CD,” the researchers concluded.

Reference

Khalili H, Håkansson N, Chan SS, et al [published online January 3, 2020]. Adherence to a Mediterranean diet is associated with a lower risk of later-onset Crohn's disease: results from two large prospective cohort studies. Gut. doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2019-319505