Lower by a quarter

Mediterranean diet lowers heart risk for women

All observations indicate that a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, vegetable oils and fish has a protective effect on the heart. Australian scientists have now provided statistically clear evidence of this fact for women by analyzing 16 relevant studies with 722,500 participants. Such a diet results in around a quarter less cardiovascular disease and almost a quarter less mortality.

The analysis was recently published in the medical journal "Heart" (DOI: 10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321930). There had previously been repeated indications of a prophylactic effect of a Mediterranean diet. However, most of the corresponding studies had relatively few women as participants, which limited the validity of the findings.

The researchers led by Sarah Zaman from the University of Sydney therefore carried out a meta-analysis in which they removed the data from women from the available scientific studies on the effect of a healthy diet and analyzed them in a pooled manner. This involved a total of 16 studies published between 2003 and 2021. Due to the high number of participants, a total of 722,495, the corresponding statements should then be statistically significant.

Study had an observation period of 12.5 years
The results with an average observation period of 12.5 years were clear. "Women with a high Mediterranean diet were less likely to have cardiovascular disease, had a lower overall mortality rate and had a lower rate of coronary heart disease," the scientists wrote. The figures cited showed a 24 percent reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.

Significantly lower overall mortality
Coronary heart disease (heart attack, angina pectoris, etc.) occurred 25 percent less frequently with a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, pulses, nuts, olive oil and fish (little red meat, sausage, sweets, etc.). This was also reflected in a significantly lower overall mortality rate (all causes; minus 23 percent). The frequency of strokes was 13 percent lower. This was not statistically significant.

"The study demonstrates the positive effect of a Mediterranean diet for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and death in women and could be an important step towards gender-specific guidelines," the experts wrote in the summary of their study. The Austrian figures also prove how important this would be. Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death among women in Austria. In 2021, 35.7 percent of all female deaths were due to cardiovascular disease. For men, this proportion was significantly lower at 32.9 percent.