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.

The association of the Mediterranean Adequacy Index with fatal coronary events in an Italian middle-aged male population followed for 40 years.

Background And Aims: The dietary habits defined as the Mediterranean diet have shown to be protective for coronary heart disease (CHD) and other morbid conditions. The present analysis aims to test the Mediterranean Adequacy Index (MAI), a dietary index derived from the Mediterranean habits, versus the occurrence of fatal CHD events in an Italian male population followed for 40 years.

Methods And Results: In 1965, at the time of the 5-year follow-up examination of the Italian Rural Areas of the Seven Countries Study, the diet was assessed by the dietary-history method in 1139 men aged 45-64 years, free from previous coronary events, in the rural communities of Crevalcore (Northern Italy) and Montegiorgio (Central Italy).

Comparison of three different dietary scores in relation to 10-year mortality in elderly European subjects: the HALE project.

Objective: To investigate and compare the associations between dietary patterns and mortality using different European indexes of overall dietary quality.

Design, Setting And Participants: The HALE (Healthy Ageing: a Longitudinal study in Europe) population includes 2,068 men and 1,049 women, aged between 70 and 90 years of 10 European countries. Subjects were followed for 10 years.

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.

Acute effects of lyophilised red wine on total antioxidant capacity in healthy volunteers.

This is an open, cross-over study to examine the acute effects of lyophilised red wine (LYOW) on total antioxidant capacity and some metabolic variables in 10 healthy subjects (age 27.7 +/- 3.9 yr) following a light meal.

Trace element intake and status of Italian subjects living in the Gubbio area.

Daily intakes of certain trace elements (Pb, Cd, Ni, Hg, and Cr) were assessed using dietary history and weighed record methods and concurrent chemical analysis (CA) of duplicate portions, along with blood levels, in a group (21 M, 23 F) of inhabitants of the Gubbio area (Belvedere, Biscina, Scritto). The evaluation of only intake of trace elements was accomplished in 40 subjects (20 M, 20 F) 1 year later. In both surveys, trace element intakes were generally lower than the potential tolerable weekly intake.

Diet during pregnancy and total antioxidant capacity in maternal and umbilical cord blood.

Objective: To evaluate the longitudinal trend of total antioxidant capacity (ToAC) in a group of pregnant women and the relationship with their food habits and ToAC of their newborns.

Methods: ToAC of 12 pregnant women and of umbilical cord blood was determined by means of the oxygen radical absorbance capacity method; mothers' diet was assessed by the dietary history method.

Results: Mothers' oxygen radical absorbance capacity values decreased slightly from the first (5.

Total antioxidant capacity of colostrum, and transitional and mature human milk.

Objective: The relationship between antioxidant (pro-)vitamin content of breast milk and diet of pregnant women has been reported. However, the assessment of a complete and reliable antioxidant index, such as the total antioxidant capacity, has never been performed in human milk.

Methods: In the present study, the total antioxidant capacity of colostrum, and transitional and mature milk was determined by the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay in 29 lactating women and correlated with their food consumption assessed by dietary history during pregnancy and lactation.

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.

Dietary studies on two rural italian population groups of the Seven Countries Study. 3. Trend Of food and nutrient intake from 1960 to 1991.

Objective: To examine the trend of food and nutrient intake from 1960 to 1991 of the subjects of two rural Italian cohorts of the Seven Countries Study.

Design: Longitudinal study of dietary patterns from 1960 to 1991.

Setting: Two rural Italian cohorts of Seven Countries Study: Crevalcore in the North near Bologna and Montegiorgio in the Centre near Ancona.

Dietary patterns and cognitive function in elderly men in Finland, Italy and The Netherlands.

Objective: To relate dietary patterns to cognitive function in elderly men.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Population based.

Vitamin intake and status in a group of subjects from the Gubbio area Italy.

beta-Carotene, retinol, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin intake and blood nutritional status beta-carotene, retinol, and alpha-tocopherol) were investigated in a group of 79 subjects (35 males and 44 females) of 30 years and over, living in three rural hamlets in the Gubbio area (Central Italy) to see if there were any differences in nutrient intake using different methods of dietary assessment and if there was a relationship between vitamin intake and status. Vitamin intakes were assessed by three different methods: dietary history, two-day weighed record and two-day duplicate-portion chemical analysis. Vitamin content of duplicate diets was assessed by semiautomated HPLC methods.

Gustatory and food habit changes during the menstrual cycle.

Gustatory and food habit changes during the menstrual cycle were studied in 8 women, 6 smokers and 2 non-smokers, aged 23-37 years. The following parameters were evaluated during three consecutive menstrual cycles: blood oestradiol and progesterone levels on the 7th, 14th and 21st day of each cycle (radioimmunoassay); detection and recognition thresholds and concentration preferences for sucrose, sodium chloride, citric acid and quinine sulphate on the 1st, 7th, 14th and 21st day of each cycle; food consumption (weighed record) on days 1 and 2, 6-8, 13-15 and 20-22 each cycle. The four basic tastes were influenced differently by blood hormone levels during the menstrual cycle.

Dietary intake in five ageing cohorts of men in Finland, Italy and The Netherlands.

Objective: To obtain insight into dietary habits of elderly people and how these habits have evolved from middle to old age.

Design: Cross-sectional study of dietary patterns around 1990; retrospective cohort study of changes in dietary intake since middle age.

Setting: Five cohorts: East and West Finland, Zutphen (Netherlands), Crevalcore (Italy), and Montegiorgo (Italy).

Relationship between mothers' and newborns' nutritional and blood lipid variables.

Objective: To study the relation between anthropometry, diet and blood lipids during pregnancy and anthropometry and cord blood lipids in newborns.

Design: Longitudinal study during pregnancy.

Setting: Population study.

Vitamin and mineral nutritional status and other biochemical data assessed in groups of men from Crevalcore and Montegiorgio (Italy).

The vitamin and mineral nutritional status of 34 elderly (mean age 77.6 +/- 4.7 years) and 39 younger subjects (mean age 41.

Dietary studies on two rural Italian population groups of the Seven Countries Study. 2. Concurrent validation of protein, fat and carbohydrate intake.

On 18 subjects from two rural areas in Italy which were part of the Seven Countries Study (Crevalcore and Montegiorgio), we carried out the concurrent validation of protein, fat, fatty acid and carbohydrate intake in the diet at the thirty-first year follow-up in 1991. The values of the above nutrients obtained using food composition tables from the weighted record method for dietary surveys were compared with the values from chemical analysis of food composites. In both areas for protein, fat and carbohydrate intake the inter-individual variation was large.

Dietary studies on two rural Italian population groups of the Seven Countries Study. 1. Food and nutrient intake at the thirty-first year follow-up in 1991.

The food and nutrient intake at the thirty-first follow-up in 1991 of 16 surviving elderly from Crevalcore and Montegiorgio, two Italian rural ares of the Seven Countries Study, are reported. For dietary appraisal the individual weighed record method for 3 and 9 days in three seasons was used. In autumn the dietary history method was also used.