Abstract
Background & aims: Primary prevention of atrial fibrillation (AF) through behavioural and dietary modification is a critically important and unmet need. Flavonoids are bioactive dietary compounds with promising cardiovascular health benefits. Our aim was to investigate the association between flavonoid intake and clinically apparent AF. Methods: Baseline data from 55 613 participants of the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health Study, without AF, recruited between 1993 and 1997, were cross-linked with Danish nationwide registries. Total flavonoid and flavonoid subclass intakes were calculated from validated food frequency questionnaires using the Phenol-Explorer database. Associations between flavonoid intake and incident AF (first-time hospitalization or outpatient visit) were examined using restricted cubic splines based on Cox proportional hazards models. Results: During a median [IQR] follow-up of 21 [18–22] years, 7291 participants were diagnosed with AF. Total flavonoid intake was not statistically significantly associated with risk of incident AF in the whole cohort. However, compared to the lowest quintile, a total flavonoid intake of 1000 mg/day was associated with a lower risk of AF in smokers [0.86 (0.77, 0.96)] but not in non-smokers [0.96 (0.88, 1.06)], and a lower risk of AF in high alcohol consumers [ > 20 g/d: 0.84 (0.75, 0.95)] but not in low-to-moderate alcohol consumers [ < 20 g/d: 0.97 (0.89, 1.07)]. Conclusion: Intake of flavonoids was not significantly associated with a lower risk of incident AF. However, higher intakes of flavonoids may be beneficial for those at a higher risk of developing AF.
RAS ID
31716
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2020
Funding Information
The Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health Study was funded by the Danish Cancer Society, Denmark. FD is funded by The Danish Heart Foundation (Grant number 17-R115-A7443-22062) and Gangstedfonden (Grant number A35136), Denmark. NPB is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Fellowship (Grant number APP1159914), Australia. The salary of JMH is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Senior Research Fellowship, Australia (Grant number APP1116937). CK is funded by the Danish Cancer Society (Knæk Cancer 2017, Grant number R174-A11507-17-S52).
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
Grant Number
NHMRC Number : APP1116937
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Publisher
Elsevier
Comments
Bondonno, N. P., Murray, K., Bondonno, C. P., Lewis, J. R., Croft, K. D., Kyrø, C., ... & Piccini, J. P. (2020). Flavonoid intake and its association with atrial fibrillation. Clinical Nutrition, 30(12), 3821-3828. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2020.04.025