Dietary score associations with markers of chronic low-grade inflammation: a cross-sectional comparative analysis of a middle- to older-aged population

Purpose To assess relationships between the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), Mediterranean Diet (MD), Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII (R)) and Energy-adjusted DII (E-DII (TM)) scores and pro-inflammatory cytokines, adipocytokines, acute-phase response proteins, coagulation factors and white blood cells. Methods This was a cross-sectional study of 1862 men and women aged 46-73 years, randomly selected from a large primary care centre in Ireland. DASH, MD, DII and E-DII scores were derived from validated food frequency questionnaires. Correlation and multivariate-adjusted linear regression analyses with correction for multiple testing were performed to examine dietary score relationships with biomarker concentrations. Results In fully adjusted models, higher diet quality or a less pro-inflammatory diet was associated with lower concentrations of c-reactive protein, neutrophils (all dietary scores), complement component 3 [C3], interleukin 6 [IL- 6], tumour necrosis factor-alpha [TNF-alpha], white blood cell count [WBC], the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio [NLR] (DASH, DII and E-DII), monocytes (DASH and DII) and resistin (DII and E-DII). After accounting for multiple testing, relationships with C3 (DASH: beta = - 2.079, p = .011 and DII: beta = 2.521, p = .036), IL-6 (DASH: beta = - 0.063, p = .011), TNF-alpha (DASH: beta = - 0.027, p = .034), WBC (DASH: beta = - 0.028, p = .001 and DII: beta = 0.029, p = .02), neutrophils (DASH: beta = - 0.041, p = .001; DII: beta = 0.043, p = .007; E-DII: beta = 0.029, p = .009) and the NLR (DASH: beta = - 0.035, p = .011) persisted. Conclusions Better diet quality, determined by the DASH score, may be more closely associated with inflammatory biomarkers related to health in middle- to older-aged adults than the MD, DII and E-DII scores.

Automated summary

This study found that higher diet quality was associated with lower concentrations of inflammatory biomarkers, and the DASH score was more closely related to inflammatory biomarkers related to health in middle-aged and older adults than the MD, DII, and E-DII scores.