PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Susanna C Larsson
AU  - Nikola Drca
AU  - Martin Björck
AU  - Magnus Bäck
AU  - Alicja Wolk
TI  - Nut consumption and incidence of seven cardiovascular diseases
AID  - 10.1136/heartjnl-2017-312819
DP  - 2018 Mar 21
TA  - Heart
PG  - heartjnl-2017-312819
4099  - http://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2018/03/21/heartjnl-2017-312819.short
4100  - http://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2018/03/21/heartjnl-2017-312819.full
AB  - Background Nut consumption has been found to be inversely associated with cardiovascular disease mortality, but the association between nut consumption and incidence of specific cardiovascular diseases is unclear. We examined the association between nut consumption and incidence of seven cardiovascular diseases.Methods This prospective study included 61 364 Swedish adults who had completed a Food Frequency Questionnaire and were followed up for 17 years through linkage with the Swedish National Patient and Death Registers.Results Nut consumption was inversely associated with risk of myocardial infarction, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and abdominal aortic aneurysm in the age-adjusted and sex-adjusted analysis. However, adjustment for multiple risk factors attenuated these associations and only a linear, dose–response, association with atrial fibrillation (ptrend=0.004) and a non-linear association (pnon-linearity=0.003) with heart failure remained. Compared with no consumption of nuts, the multivariable HRs (95% CI) of atrial fibrillation across categories of nut consumption were 0.97 (0.93 to 1.02) for 1–3 times/month, 0.88 (0.79 to 0.99) for 1–2 times/week and 0.82 (0.68 to 0.99) for ≥3 times/week. For heart failure, the corresponding HRs (95% CI) were 0.87 (0.80 to 0.94), 0.80 (0.67 to 0.97) and 0.98 (0.76 to 1.27). Nut consumption was not associated with risk of aortic valve stenosis, ischaemic stroke or intracerebral haemorrhage.Conclusions These findings suggest that nut consumption or factors associated with this nutritional behaviour may play a role in reducing the risk of atrial fibrillation and possibly heart failure.Trial registration number NCT01127711 and NCT01127698;Results.