Dietary patterns and survival of older adults.

BACKGROUND: Recent research has linked overall dietary patterns to survival in older adults.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine the dietary patterns of a cohort of older adults, and to explore associations of these dietary patterns with survival over a 10-year period. A secondary goal was to evaluate participants’ quality of life and nutritional status according to their dietary patterns.

DESIGN: The Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study is a prospective cohort study of 3,075 older adults. In this study, all-cause mortality was assessed from baseline through Year 10. Food intake was estimated with a modified Block food frequency questionnaire, and dietary patterns of 2,582 participants with complete data were derived by cluster analysis.

RESULTS: Six dietary pattern clusters were identified, including a Healthy Foods cluster, characterized by higher intake of low-fat dairy products, fruit, whole grains, poultry, fish, and vegetables. Both the High-Fat Dairy Products and Sweets and Desserts clusters had a 1.4-fold higher risk of mortality than the Healthy Foods cluster after adjusting for potential confounders. The Healthy Foods cluster also had significantly more years of healthy life and more favorable levels of selected nutritional biomarkers than the other clusters.

CONCLUSIONS: A dietary pattern consistent with current guidelines to consume relatively high amounts of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, poultry, fish, and low-fat dairy products may be associated with superior nutritional status, quality of life and survival in older adults.