Prospective association between fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of type 2 diabetes amongst Chinese adults: the China Health and Nutrition Survey

Abstract

This study aimed to prospectively explore the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk amongst 13,175 Chinese adults. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) of T2D events in relation to FVI. Results showed that the highest quintile of FVI was inversely associated with T2D risk in men (HR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.50, 0.98) and women (HR = 0.74, 95% CI: 0.55, 0.97), whereas no such associations were observed between total vegetable intake and T2D in either men (HR = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.65, 1.26) or women (HR = 1.02, 95% CI: 0.77, 1.38). In addition, greater fruit intake was inversely associated with T2D risk in men (HR = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.28, 0.63) and women (HR = 0.64, 95% CI: 0.45, 0.90). Overall, FVI and total fruit intake were inversely associated with T2D risk amongst Chinese adults.

Keywords:

• Fruit
• vegetable
• type 2 diabetes
• prospective cohort
• Chinese adults

Acknowledgments

Data in this study were derived from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS). We would like to thank CHNS participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in the China Health and Nutrition Survey at http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/china.

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by the National Institute for Nutrition and Health, China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health to Carolina Population Centre at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Grant numbers P2CHD050924, T32HD007168), the National Institutes of Health (Grant numbers R01HD30880, P30DK056350, R24HD050924 and R01HD38700), the Fogarty International Centre of the National Institutes of Health (Grant numbers D43TW009077, D43TW007709).