Plant centric healthy diet in youth lowers risk of emphysema in middle age: Study

Healthy dietary patterns during middle and late adulthood have been associated with a lower risk of COPD. However, the association of diet during young adulthood with respiratory health over the life course is unknown. We investigated whether greater adherence to a nutritionally rich plant-centred diet in young adulthood is associated with reduced longitudinal lung function decline and decreased incidence of radiographic emphysema.

Researchers analyzed data from 3850 young adults from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Lung study. Participants were 18-30 years old at enrollment and followed longitudinally for 30 years. The interviewer-administered validated CARDIA diet history captured Diet intake at exam years 0, 7 and 20. We calculated A Priori Diet Quality Scores (APDQS) and categorized the cohort into quintiles, with higher quintiles representing increased nutritionally rich plant-based foods intake. Lung function was assessed through spirometry performed at exam years 0, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 30 (n=20334 observations). Associations between APDQS and lifetime lung function decline and the presence of radiographic emphysema on year 25 computerized tomography (CT), scans among a subset of 1380 participants were estimated in adjusted linear mixed effects and logistic regression models, respectively. Never smokers were omitted from analyses of imaging outcomes, as incident radiographic emphysema occurred at a rate of only 1.3% among them.

Results:

Greater intake of a plant-centred diet was associated with less decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) throughout the follow-up period (p for time trend <0.001 for each); these associations were most pronounced during the first 10 years of follow up. Among ever smokers, each 1 SD increase in APDQS was associated with a 40% lower odds (95% CI 0.45-0.80) of incident radiographic emphysema. When comparing the highest quintile of APDQS to the lowest quintile, the multivariable-adjusted odds ratio of incident radiographic emphysema was 0.29 (95% CI 0.14-0.63) (Table 1).

Thus, consumption of a high-quality plant-centred diet in young adulthood was associated with less lung function decline over 30 years. Among current or former smokers, adherence to a plant-centred diet was associated with a lower risk of developing radiographic emphysema over 25 years.

Reference:

Association Between a Plant Centered Diet and Lung Function Trajectory and Incident Emphysema: Findings from the CARDIA Lung Study by E. Eisenberg et al. presented at the ATS 2022 International Conference.

https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/10476/presentation/6732