Mixed
The DASH score may be more effective than the HEI at reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, and both AHEI and DASH are associated with reduced neurodegenerative disease risk, whereas HEI was not.
While all high-quality diets help, the DASH and AHEI indices show stronger or more consistent links to preventing diabetes and cognitive decline than the original HEI. If you are tracking your diet, the DASH or AHEI frameworks might offer more robust protection against these specific conditions.
There was a trend towards (P ¼ 0.04) a greater reduction in T2D risk using the DASH score (RR 0.78, 95% CI 0.72 to 0.83, I2 ¼ 65%) compared with the HEI (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.82 to 0.94, I2 ¼ 64%). For neurodegenerative diseases, lower risk of incidence was linked with diets that scored highly on AHEI (RR 0.76, 95% CI 0.70 to 0.82, I2 ¼ 25%) and DASH (RR 0.85, 95% CI 0.76 to 0.95, I2 ¼ 73%), but not HEI (RR 1.12, 95% CI 0.87 to 1.44).
Why this rating
Based on subgroup analyses with varying heterogeneity and some non-significant findings for specific indices (HEI for neurodegenerative disease).
Source
Diet Quality as Assessed by the Healthy Eating Index, Alternate Healthy Eating Index, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Score, and Health Outcomes: A Second Update of a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies
Jakub Morze et al. · Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics · 2020
DOI 10.1016/j.jand.2020.08.076
More from this paper
- Adhering to high-quality dietary patterns, as measured by HEI, AHEI, or DASH scores, is inversely associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases.Good
- High diet quality is associated with reduced all-cause and cancer mortality specifically among cancer survivors.Moderate
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