Purpose: Growing elderly populations worldwide have sparked interest in factors promoting healthy aging. Diet and other lifestyle patterns are key factors for healthy ageing; however, evidence is sparse for specific dietary guidelines that are easily implemented in everyday life. Whole grains constitute specific dietary components with unexplored potential in healthy ageing.
Methods: We applied an illness-death multistate model to assess the association between whole-grain intake and life expectancy, both with and without disease, over a 20-year period. Healthy ageing was defined as absence of cancer, ischemic heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and dementia during follow-up.
Results: Based on information from 22,606 men and 25,468 women in the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort, followed for an average of 13.8 and 17.5 years, respectively, a doubling in whole-grain intake was associated with 0.43 (95% CI: 0.33-0.52) and 0.15 (0.06-0.24) additional years without disease for men and women, respectively. Comparing the highest and lowest quartiles of whole-grain intake, with a special emphasis on men, we found that those with the highest intake lived, on average, one year longer without disease compared to those with the lowest intake. Additionally, although a high intake of whole grains yielded longer life expectancy, the duration of living with disease was shorter.
Conclusion: Intake of whole grains in mid-life was associated with healthy ageing looking 20 years ahead.
Keywords: Epidemiology; Healthy ageing; Prevention; Whole grains.
© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.