Dietary glycaemic index, dietary glycaemic load and incidence of myocardial infarction in women

Abstract

The association of dietary glycaemic index (GI) and glycaemic load (GL) with CVD has been examined in several populations with varying results. We tested the hypothesis that women with diets high in GI or GL would have higher rates of myocardial infarction (MI), and the associations would be stronger in overweight women. We measured dietary GI and GL in 36 234 Swedish Mammography Cohort participants aged 48–83 years using FFQ. Cox models were used to calculate incidence rate ratios (RR) and 95 % CI for hospitalisation or death due to MI assessed using the Swedish inpatient and cause-of-death registers from 1 January 1998 until 31 December 2006. Over 9 years of follow-up, 1138 women were hospitalised or died due to a first MI. In multivariable-adjusted models, the RR comparing top to bottom quartile of dietary GI were 1·12 (95 % CI 0·92, 1·35, P-trend = 0·24), and the RR comparing top to bottom quartile of dietary GL were 1·22 (95 % CI 0·90, 1·65, P-trend = 0·23). Among overweight women, the RR comparing top to bottom quartile of dietary GI were 1·20 (95 % CI 0·91, 1·58, P-trend = 0·22), and the RR comparing top to bottom quartile of dietary GL were 1·45 (95 % CI 0·93, 2·25, P-trend = 0·16). There were no statistically significant associations of dietary GI or GL with MI in this population.