High fruit intake may reduce mortality among middle-aged and elderly men. The Study of Men Born in 1913

Abstract

Objective: A number of long-term population-based studies have tried to study fruit and vegetable consumption in relation to cardiovascular disease, cancer and total mortality. Few of these studies are based on randomly selected population samples. The aim of the study was to investigate the long-term effect of fruit and vegetable consumption on mortality, cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular death, cancer morbidity and cancer death among middle-aged and elderly men.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: General community. The Study of Men Born in 1913.

Subjects: 792 men at age 54 who participated in a screening examination in 1967.

Main outcome measures: A food frequency questionnaire was used to obtain information of the dietary habits in 730 of the men (92%). All men were followed up with repeated examinations until the age of 80.

Results: Cardiovascular as well as total mortality was significantly lower among men with high fruit consumption in univariate analysis. There was no correlation between fruit or vegetable consumption in relation to cancer incidence, cancer death and cardiovascular disease. In multivariate survival analysis where smoking, cholesterol and hypertension were taken into account, there was a significantly lower mortality among men with a high fruit consumption during 16 y follow up until the age of 70 (P=0.042), but this finding was no longer statistically significant during 26 y follow-up at the age of 80 (P=0.051).

Conclusions. Daily fruit consumption seems to have positive effect on long-term survival independently of other traditional cardiovascular risk factors like smoking, hypertension and cholesterol.

Sponsorship: This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Medical Research Council (K98-274-06276-17) King Gustav V and Queen Victoria’s Foundation, and the Göteborg University.

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2000) 54, 337–341