Eric Rimm

ObjectiveWhether employees’ health status is associated with the effectiveness of workplace health promotion programs is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine if the effect of a workplace healthy eating intervention differed by baseline chronic disease status.MethodsThis was a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial conducted September 2016 to February 2018 among US hospital employees to test the effect of a 12-month behavioral intervention (personalized feedback, peer comparisons, and financial incentives) on diet and weight. Participants were classified as having chronic disease (yes/no) based on self-reported hypertension, hyperlipidemia, heart disease, stroke, pre-diabetes, diabetes, cancer or another serious illness. BMI was measured at study visits and calories purchased were measured from cafeteria sales data over 24 months. Mixed models with random effects …

BackgroundPhytosterols are structurally similar to cholesterol and partially inhibit intestinal absorption of cholesterol, although their impact on coronary artery disease (CAD) risk remains to be elucidated.ObjectivesThis study aimed to prospectively assess the associations between total and individual phytosterol intake and CAD risk in United States health professionals.MethodsThe analysis included 213,992 participants from 3 prospective cohorts—the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), NHSII, and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study—without cardiovascular disease or cancer at baseline. Diet was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire every 2–4 y since baseline. Associations between phytosterol intake and the risk of CAD, such as nonfatal myocardial infarction and fatal CAD, were evaluated using Cox proportional hazards regression models.ResultsMore than 5,517,993 person-years, 8725 cases …

Previous multiple-choice food-based food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) were not validated against weighed dietary records (WDRs) in Iran. This study investigated the validity and reproducibility of a multiple-choice semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (SQ-FFQ) in adults living in central Iran. Patients with diabetes and their spouses were asked to complete 3 SQ-FFQs by interview, and nine 3-day WDRs, over 9 months. They provided 2 blood samples to assess serum calcium, magnesium, zinc, and vitamin C levels. The Pearson and intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to assess reproducibility and validity. The degree of misclassification was explored using a contingency table of quartiles which compare the information between third FFQ and WDRs. The method of triads was incorporated to assess validity coefficients between estimated intakes using third FFQ, WDRs, and biochemical …

Multiple dietary patterns have been associated with different diseases; however, their comparability to improve overall health has yet to be determined. Here, in 205,852 healthcare professionals from three US cohorts followed for up to 32 years, we prospectively assessed two mechanism-based diets and six diets based on dietary recommendations in relation to major chronic disease, defined as a composite outcome of incident major cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes and cancer. We demonstrated that adherence to a healthy diet was generally associated with a lower risk of major chronic disease (hazard ratio (HR) comparing the 90th with the 10th percentile of dietary pattern scores = 0.58–0.80). Participants with low insulinemic (HR = 0.58, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.57, 0.60), low inflammatory (HR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.60, 0.63) or diabetes risk-reducing (HR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.69 …

BackgroundPlant-based dietary patterns are gaining more attention due to their potential in reducing the risk of developing major chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes (T2D), cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, and mortality, while an up-to-date comprehensive quantitative review is lacking. This study aimed to summarize the existing prospective observational evidence on associations between adherence to plant-based dietary patterns and chronic disease outcomes.MethodsWe conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of evidence across prospective observational studies. The data sources used were PubMed and MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, and screening of references. We included all prospective observational studies that evaluated the association between adherence to plant-based dietary patterns and incidence of T2D, CVD, cancer, and mortality among adults (≥ 18 years …

In the initially published version of this article, we inadvertently used incident fatal cancer rather than incident total cancer for women due to a programming error. We have conducted a re-analysis using the complete cancer cases. The study population now includes 205,776 healthcare professionals (not 205,852 as stated previously) including 162,591 women (not 162,667) and 43,185 men (unchanged). The “Population characteristics” section of the Results now reports 58,309 events of major chronic disease (previously stated as 44,975), 12,958 major cardiovascular diseases (previously 12,962), 18,606 cases of diabetes (previously 18,615), and 33,530 total cancers (previously 17,909). The numbers in the abstract and the “Population characteristics” section of the Results have been amended. As in the published analysis, the inverse associations between the dietary patterns and major chronic disease (the …

All changes before and after the correction are presented in Table 1. The section of the content of the updated manuscript are also included. The original Table 1, Figure 4, Supplementary Figure S2, S6, S8, S11–S12 are updated, and the original and corrected table and figures are presented below.

BackgroundDespite federal regulations limiting saturated fat and sodium levels on a weekly average basis, daily nutrient content of school meals in the United States is not regulated, leading to potential large fluctuations and intake well in excess of dietary recommendations.ObjectiveTo assess the daily prevalence of potential public elementary school meal combinations that were high in saturated fat and sodium (using cutoffs based on the US Department of Agriculture weekly average reimbursable meal thresholds), and to identify saturated fat and sodium thresholds for entrées to limit full meals exceeding those cutoffs.DesignCross-sectional.Participants and settingFour weeks of publicly available public elementary school (kindergarten through grade five) breakfast and lunch menus with associated nutrition data were collected from a national stratified random sample of 128 school districts during fall 2019.Main …