Diverse Diets Associated With Lower Odds of Rheumatoid Arthritis: ICMR-NIN Study
The researchers added that the study was based on a case-control design and therefore establishes an association, not a cause-and-effect relationship.
Hyderabad:Adults diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis had less diverse diets, lower micronutrient adequacy and diets with greater inflammatory potential than healthy adults, according to a study by researchers from the National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN), Hyderabad, and collaborating institutions.
The study tracked 615 adults aged 18–55 years, including 301 newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis cases and 314 healthy controls, and found that the median dietary inflammatory index (DII) score was 2.18 among those with rheumatoid arthritis compared with 0.37 among healthy controls.
The dietary inflammatory index measures the inflammatory potential of an individual's diet.
Only 50.2 per cent of those with rheumatoid arthritis had a high dietary diversity score (DDS) compared with 74.2 per cent of healthy controls, while median micronutrient adequacy was 18.9 per cent among cases against 32.9 per cent among controls.
After adjustment for age, sex and body mass index, each one-unit increase in the DII was associated with 17 per cent higher odds of rheumatoid arthritis.
Every one-unit increase in the DDS was associated with 27 per cent lower odds of contracting rheumatoid arthritis, while every 10-percentage-point increase in the ‘mean probability of micronutrient adequacy’ was associated with 12 per cent lower odds of rheumatoid arthritis.
The study, titled ‘Associations of Dietary Inflammatory Potential, Dietary Diversity, and Micronutrient Adequacy with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Case-Control Study from India’, has been published in the international peer-reviewed journal Nutrients.
Dietary intake was assessed using a validated 131-item food frequency questionnaire. Researchers evaluated dietary inflammatory potential using the DII, dietary diversity using the DDS, and micronutrient adequacy using the Mean Probability of Adequacy (MPA).
“The findings point towards the importance of looking at overall dietary quality rather than individual nutrients in understanding chronic inflammatory conditions. Dietary diversity and adequate intake of essential micronutrients are important components of a healthy diet, and their potential relationship with inflammatory diseases warrants further investigation,” said Dr Devraj J. Parasannanavar, Scientist-E, NIN, who supervised the study.
Dr Bharati Kulkarni, director, ICMR-NIN, said, “This study adds to the emerging evidence on the relationship between diet and chronic inflammatory conditions in the Indian population. However, these findings should be interpreted cautiously. A diverse and nutritionally adequate diet is already an important component of healthy eating, but whether an improved diet can prevent or modify rheumatoid arthritis needs to be established through prospective and intervention studies.”
The researchers added that the study was based on a case-control design and therefore establishes an association, not a cause-and-effect relationship.