Comparative ecologic relationships of saturated fat, sucrose, food groups, and a Mediterranean food pattern score to 50-year coronary heart disease mortality rates among 16 cohorts of the Seven Countries Study.

Background/objectives: We studied the ecologic relationships of food groups, macronutrients, eating patterns, and an a priori food pattern score (Mediterranean Adequacy Index: MAI) with long-term CHD mortality rates in the Seven Countries Study.

Subjects/methods: Sixteen cohorts (12,763 men aged 40-59 years) were enrolled in the 1960s in seven countries (US, Finland, The Netherlands, Italy, Greece, former Yugoslavia: Croatia/Serbia, Japan). Dietary surveys were carried out at baseline and only in a subsample of each cohort.

Baseline fatty acids, food groups, a diet score and 50-year all-cause mortality rates. An ecological analysis of the Seven Countries Study.

Objectives: This analysis deals with the ecologic relationships of dietary fatty acids, food groups and the Mediterranean Adequacy Index (MAI, derived from 15 food groups) with 50-year all-cause mortality rates in 16 cohorts of the Seven Countries Study.

Material And Methods: A dietary survey was conducted at baseline in cohorts subsamples including chemical analysis of food samples representing average consumptions. Ecologic correlations of dietary variables were computed across cohorts with 50-year all-cause mortality rates, where 97% of men had died.

Factor analysis in the identification of dietary patterns and their predictive role in morbid and fatal events.

Objective: The purpose was to examine the role of dietary patterns derived from factor analysis and their association with health and disease.

Design: Longitudinal population study, with measurement of diet (dietary history method), cardiovascular risk factors and a follow-up of 20 years for CHD incidence and 40 years for mortality.

Setting: Two population samples in rural villages in northern and central Italy.

Mediterranean Adequacy Index of Italian diets.

Objective: To assess, particularly in longitudinal studies, how close or far the food intakes of population groups are from a reference dietary pattern.

Design: Computation of an index, called the Mediterranean Adequacy Index (MAI), by dividing the sum of the percentage of total energy from typical Mediterranean food groups by the sum of the percentage of total energy from non-typical Mediterranean food groups. The reference Italian-Mediterranean diet utilised was that of subjects from Nicotera in 1960.

Vegetable intake and long-term survival among middle-aged men in Italy.

Purpose: To examine prospectively the relationship between vegetable consumption and long-term survival.

Methods: In 1965, a total of 1536 Italian males from two Italian rural cohorts of the Seven Countries Study, aged 45-65 years, were examined. Information on lifestyle and food consumption collected at this visit, and total and cause-specific mortality data collected in 30 years of follow-up were analyzed for the present study.

Trace elements in foods and meals consumed by students attending the faculty cafeteria.

The content and intake of some trace elements (Pb, Cd, Ni, Hg, Cr) in meals, consumed by students attending the Faculty Cafeteria, were assessed. The study was carried out over 6 days of the 2nd week of February, 1993 and in three consecutive days of the second week of May. In those periods 10453 and 4055 students attended the cafeteria, respectively.