Associations of dietary and lifestyle inflammation scores with mortality due to CVD, cancer, and all causes among Black and White American men and women

One potential mechanism by which diet and lifestyle may affect chronic disease risk and subsequent mortality is through chronic systemic inflammation. In this study, we investigated whether the inflammatory potentials of diet and lifestyle, separately and combined, were associated with all-cause, all-CVD and all-cancer mortality risk. We analysed data on 18 484 (of whom 4103 died during follow-up) Black and White men and women aged >= 45 years from the prospective REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study. Using baseline (2003-2007) Block 98 FFQ and lifestyle questionnaire data, we constructed the previously validated inflammation biomarker panel-weighted, 19-component dietary inflammation score (DIS) and 4-component lifestyle inflammation score (LIS) to reflect the overall inflammatory potential of diet and lifestyle. From multivariable Cox proportional hazards models, the hazards ratios (HR) and their 95 % CI for the DIS-all-cause mortality and LIS-all-cause mortality risk associations were 1 center dot 32 (95 % CI (1 center dot 18, 1 center dot 47); P (for trend) < 0 center dot 01) and 1 center dot 25 (95 % CI (1 center dot 12, 1 center dot 38); P (for trend) < 0 center dot 01), respectively, among those in the highest relative to the lowest quintiles. The findings were similar by sex and race and for all-cancer mortality, but weaker for all-CVD mortality. The joint HR for all-cause mortality among those in the highest relative to the lowest quintiles of both the DIS and LIS was 1 center dot 91 (95 % CI 1 center dot 57, 2 center dot 33) (P (for interaction) < 0 center dot 01). Diet and lifestyle, via their contributions to systemic inflammation, separately, but perhaps especially jointly, may be associated with higher mortality risk among men and women.