Relation of Consistency With the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Diet and Incidence of Heart Failure in Men Aged 45 to 79 Years

The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet reduces blood pressure, and consistency with the DASH diet has been associated with lower rates of heart failure (HF) in women. We examined the association between consistency with the DASH diet and rates of HF hospitalization or mortality in 38,987 participants in the Cohort of Swedish Men aged 45 to 79 years. The diet was measured using food-frequency questionnaires, and scores were created to assess the consistency with DASH by ranking the intake of the DASH diet components. Cox models were used to calculate the rate ratios of HF (807 incident cases) determined through the Swedish in-patient and cause-of-death registers from January 1, 1998 to December 31, 2006. In multivariate-adjusted analyses, men in the greatest quartile of the DASH component score had a 22% lower rate of HF events than those in the lowest quartile (95% confidence interval 5% to 35%, p for trend = 0.006). In conclusion, greater consistency with the DASH diet was associated with lower rates HF events in men aged 45 to 79 years.