Adherence
Improving adherence to diet quality scores (AHEI, AMED, or DASH) over a 4-year period is associated with a 7-8% lower risk of cardiovascular disease in the subsequent 4-year period compared to stable diet quality.
To lower your cardiovascular disease risk, focus on improving your overall diet quality over time. This means gradually increasing your intake of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and healthy fats, while reducing processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, and sodium. You do not need to be perfect; even small, consistent improvements in your dietary patterns over a few years can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke, regardless of your starting diet.
Compared with participants whose diet quality remained relatively stable in each 4-year period, those with the greatest improvement in diet quality scores had a 7%-8% lower CVD risk in the subsequent 4-year period (pooled hazard ratio, 0.92 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.87-0.99] for AHEI; 0.93 [95% CI: 0.85-1.02] for AMED; and 0.93 [95% CI: 0.87-0.99] for DASH; all P-trend<0.05).
Why this rating
Large prospective cohort study (HPFS and NHS) with long follow-up and repeated measures, though observational design limits causal inference.
Source
Changes in Diet Quality Scores and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Among US Men and Women
Mercedes Sotos‐Prieto et al. · Circulation · 2015
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