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Association between the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption and cardiovascular disease in male smokers and non-smokers

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Consumption of fruit and vegetables (F&V) is associated with a lower cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Smoking may affect the strength of this association. The objective of this study was to compare the relationship between the frequency of F&V intake and CVD risk in male current, former and never smokers.

Subjects/Methods:

A prospective study in men (n=8060) aged 50–59 years who were recruited in France and Northern Ireland. The frequency of F&V intake was assessed by using a food frequency questionnaire. The outcome criteria were incident cases of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and total CVD (coronary heart disease and stroke) over 10-year period.

Results:

A total of 367 ACS and 612 CVD events occurred during the follow-up period. A multivariate analysis revealed a statistically significant interaction between smoking status and F&V intake for ACS and for CVD (both P's<0.05). In current smokers, the relative risks for ACS were 0.78 (0.54–1.13) and 0.49 (0.30–0.81) in the second and third tertiles of F&V intake, respectively (P for trend<0.001); for CVD, the values were 0.80 (0.59–1.08) and 0.64 (0.44–0.93) respectively (P for trend<0.001). In contrast, no statistically significant associations were observed for never and former smokers. Similar statistical interactions for ACS were observed for fruit intake (P=0.07) and vegetable intake (P<0.05) taken separately.

Conclusions:

These results suggest that high fruit and vegetable intake is associated with a lower risk of CVD in male smokers.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the following organizations for facilitating the recruitment of the PRIME subjects: the Health Screening Centres coordinated by the Social Security Department in Lille (Institut Pasteur), Strasbourg, Toulouse and Tourcoing; the Occupational Medicine Services in the Haute-Garonne county and the Strasbourg Urban Area; the Association Inter-enterprises des Services Médicaux du Travail de Lille et environs; the Comité pour le Développement de la Médecine du Travail; the Mutuelle Générale des PTT du Bas-Rhin; the Laboratoire d’Analyses de l’Institut de Chimie Biologique de la Faculté de Médecine de Strasbourg; the Department of Health (NI) and the Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke Association. We also thank the external members of the event validation committees (Professor L Guize, Dr C Morrison, Dr M-T Guillanneuf and Professor M Giroud) and the Alliance Partnership Programme for its financial support. The PRIME study was supported by grants from INSERM, the Lille Pasteur Institute, and the Merck, Sharp and Dohme-Chibret Laboratory.

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Correspondence to J Dallongeville.

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Dauchet, L., Montaye, M., Ruidavets, JB. et al. Association between the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption and cardiovascular disease in male smokers and non-smokers. Eur J Clin Nutr 64, 578–586 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2010.46

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