A diet meeting the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans is associated with slower atherosclerosis progression in postmenopausal women with established heart disease
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This study involving 224 postmenopausal women with established coronary artery disease participating in the Estrogen Replacement and Atherosclerosis Study was designed to determine whether a diet meeting the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) was associated with lesser atherosclerotic disease progression. Atherosclerosis progression was defined by repeat measures of quantitative angiography over a 3-year period, and adherence to key DGA recommendations was measured using the DGA Adherence Index (DGAI), a measure of adherence to key energy-specific and healthy-choice recommended dietary intakes, with each component weighted equally, and the modified DGAI score (wDGAI) with each component weighted based on its relation to atherosclerosis progression. Analysis revealed that DGAI was not associated with atherosclerosis progression, whereas wDGAI was related to 0.049-mm lesser narrowing of coronary arteries. Thus, assuming that all DGA recommendations are similarly effective, overall adherence was not associated with atherosclerosis progression in postmenopausal women with established heart disease. However, when assigning differential weights to DGA recommendations, DGA adherence was significantly associated with slower atherosclerosis progression.
Abstract
