Adherence to a Mediterranean Diet and Survival in a Greek Population

Adherence to a Mediterranean Diet and survival in a Greek Population

Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to find out if Adhering to a "Mediterranian" diet will improve longevity. In recent years there have been several epidemiologic studies that have tried to link dietary patterns with increased longevity. This particular study focuses on the Mediterranian diet and its effects on longevity. The Traditional Mediterranean diet is characterized by a high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts unrefined cereals, a high intake of olive oil and a low intake of saturated lipids, a moderately high intake of fish, a low to moderate intake of dairy products mostly in the form of cheese or yogurt, a low intake of meat and poultry and a regular but moderate intake of ethanol, primarily wine and generally during meals (1.) The Mediterranean diet has been considered a healthy diet since the 1950's when Ancel Keys conducted a seven country study on the subject, and the Mediterranean diet has many of the same components as the US DASH diet, but the Mediterranean diet has a higher intake of olive oil.(3.)

Methods: This was a population based prospective study, looking only at the Greek population. There were 22,043 adult participants. Participants completed an extensive food intake questionnaire. Adherence to the traditional Mediterranean diet was assessed by a 10 point Mediterranean diet scale devised and used by the EPIC, a zero or a one being a low adherence and 10 being the highest adherence (2.). The study used a proportional hazards regression to assess the relation between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and total mortality. Considerations and adjustments were made or mortality due to coronary heart disease and cancer, with adjustments for age, sex, BMI, and physical activity levels (1.) Study had a 44 moth follow up.

Summary of findings: This study was able to find that a high degree of adherence to the traditional Mediterranean diet resulted in a significant reduction in mortality. This study focused only on the Greek population. The EPIC, a study which involves the same research at 23 research centers and 10 European countries had the same findings, "adherence to a modified Mediterranean diet relying on plant foods and unsaturated lipids was associated with a significantly longer life expectancy in apparently healthy elderly people living in nine European countries" (2.) Another similar study which focused on the effects of olive oil in the Greek population found that consuming olive oil as part of adhering to a Mediterranian diet may have a positive effect on arterial blood pressure(3.)

Conclusion: The main advantage of this study was its large size and its use of the general population. This advantage can also be a disadvantage, in monitoring such a large sample group and relying on this number of people to adhere to the structure of the study as to not compromise study results. We must take into consideration that inevitably with this sample size there will be residual factors that can not be evaluated or measured that may affect the outcome of the study. Although this study only looked at one ethnic population, which may have compromised certain aspects of the study, it is part of a