People who maintained a high-quality diet over a 12-year period had a significantly lower risk of death than people whose diets were rated low, reported researchers.
According to an analysis of two large U.S. cohorts of health professionals, a 20-percentile increase in diet-quality scores -- an indication of an improved quality of diet -- was linked to an 8%-17% reduction in mortality, reported Mercedes Sotos-Prieto, PhD, of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues.
Conversely, worsening diet quality over the 12-year period was associated with an increase in mortality of 6%-12%, they wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.