Dietary patterns generated by the Treelet Transform and risk of stroke: a Danish cohort study

Objective: To relate empirically derived dietary patterns identified using the Treelet Transform (TT) to risk of stroke. Design: A prospective cohort study using the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort. Dietary information was obtained in 1993-1997 using a validated semi-quantitative FFQ. Incident stroke diagnoses, obtained from the Danish National Patient Register, were verified by record review. Dietary patterns were generated using TT, and participants were categorised into quintiles based on their adherence to each pattern. Sex-specific Cox proportional hazard models estimated associations between dietary patterns and stroke. Setting: Denmark. Participants: 55 061 men and women aged 50-64 years at the time of enrolment. Results: Three dietary patterns explaining 15 center dot 4 % of the total variance were identified: a Prudent pattern, a Western pattern and a Wine & Snacks pattern. During a follow-up time of 10 years, 1513 cases occurred. Comparing the highest to lowest quintiles of intake, adherence to a Prudent pattern was inversely associated with stroke (HRmen 0 center dot 74, 95 % CI 0 center dot 60, 0 center dot 91; HRwomen 0 center dot 82, 95 % CI 0 center dot 62, 1 center dot 08), while adherence to a Western pattern was associated with greater risk (HRmen 1 center dot 61, 95 % CI 1 center dot 23, 2 center dot 10; HRwomen 2 center dot 01, 95 % CI 1 center dot 48, 2 center dot 72). No association was found for a Wine & Snacks pattern for women, but a weak inverse association was found for men (HR 0 center dot 81, 95 % CI 0 center dot 67, 0 center dot 99). Conclusions: The results of this study are broadly in line with current recommendations for a healthy diet to prevent stroke.