Objectives: Antioxidants are common dietary compounds with multiple health benefits. This study aimed to identify the association between dietary antioxidant consumption and the incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) mellitus (defined using the Korean Diabetes Association criteria) in South Korean adults.
Design: Baseline and follow-up data from the Health Examinees (HEXA) study, a large-scale community-based genomic cohort study conducted in South Korea SETTING: A South Korean community.
Participants: A total of 20 594 participants, aged 40-79 years, who participated in the baseline and follow-up surveys of the HEXA study were included. After an average of 5 years of follow-up, there were 332 men and 360 women with T2D.
Results: Participants with the highest total flavonoid consumption (Q5) had a lower risk of T2D (men: HR 0.63; 95% CI 0.42 to 0.93; p value for trend=0.0169; and women: HR 0.54; 95% CI 0.438 to 0.78; p value for trend=0.0001) than those with the lowest consumption (Q1). Dietary total antioxidant capacity was significantly inversely associated with the development of T2D mellitus in women participants alone (HR 0.58; 95% CI 0.40 to 0.83; p value for trend=0.0004). Stratified analyses according to age and body mass index (BMI) showed that dietary total flavonoid consumption and total antioxidant capacity had a negative association with the development of T2D in women aged >52 years and women with BMI >25 kg/m2.
Conclusions: Dietary flavonoid consumption and total antioxidant capacity were associated with a lower risk of T2D in South Korean adults, especially in women aged >52 years and overweight. The findings of this study may provide reference data for the modification of dietary guidelines for South Koreans.
Keywords: diabetes & endocrinology; epidemiology; nutrition & dietetics; public health; statistics & research methods.
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