Kim K, et al. – This study pursued the scrutiny of the correlation between dietary total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and all–cause and disease–specific mortality in US adults. Hence, it was deduced that antioxidant–rich diets were advantageous for reducing the risk of death from all–cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods

• The enrollment comprised of 23,595 US adults aged 30 years and older, in NHANES 1988-1994 and 1999-2004.
• Estimation of dietary TAC was performed from 1-day 24-h diet recall data at baseline.
• An evaluation was pursued of the all-cause, cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality through December 31, 2011.

Results

• During a mean follow-up of 13 years, deaths from all-cause, cancer and CVD were 7157, 1578, and 2155, respectively.
• The inverse associations and linear trends were examined via cause-specific Cox proportional hazards models, between dietary TAC and all-cause mortality [highest quartile (Q4) versus Q1 ref. HR 0.78; 95% CI 0.71-0.86], cancer mortality (Q4 versus Q1 ref. HR 0.75; 95% CI 0.60-0.93), and CVD mortality (Q4 versus Q1 ref. HR 0.83; 95% CI 0.69-0.99), respectively, after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, and total energy intake.
• The inverse association and linear trend persisted between dietary TAC and all-cause mortality (Q4 versus Q1 ref. HR 0.79; 95% CI 0.71-0.87) and CVD mortality (Q4 versus Q1 ref. HR 0.74; 95% CI 0.61-0.89) when further adjusted for relevant covariates.