High and low adherence to Mediterranean and DASH diet patterns and the risk of heart failure: a meta-analysis of observational studies

Background: The relationship between heart failure (HF) and the Mediterranean and DASH diets is not well delineated. This meta-analysis aimed to assess the effectiveness of high adherence to the Mediterranean and DASH diets compared to low adherence in reducing the risk of incident HF (primary prevention of HF) and reducing all-cause mortality in patients with HF (secondary prevention of HF).

Methods: The reporting stages of this meta-analysis closely adhered to the PRISMA guidelines. A comprehensive literature search was undertaken for published papers in the PubMed, Embase, EBSCO, ICTRP, and the NIH clinical trials databases.

Results: A total of 16 reports from 14 studies were included in this paper. A significant inverse association was identified between high adherence to the Mediterranean diet model (compared to low adherence) and the risk of incident HF (OR = 0.77, 95% CI: 0.63–0.93, p = 0.007) among patients without a previous diagnosis of HF. Similarly, there was a significant and inverse relationship between high adherence to the DASH diet (compared to low adherence) and the risk of incident HF (OR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.70–0.98, p = 0.03) among patients without a previous diagnosis of HF. High adherence to the Mediterranean diet model (compared to low adherence) was associated with lower all-cause mortality (OR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.78–0.99, p = 0.03) among patients with HF.

Conclusions This paper demonstrated that high adherence to the Mediterranean and DASH diets significantly reduced the risk of incident HF among individuals without a previous diagnosis of HF, whereas only high adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with lower all-cause mortality among patients with HF.