The overall goal of the proposed study is to examine important and newly emerging hypotheses concerning the relationships between nutrient intake (in particular, specific fatty acids, antioxidant nutrients, and B vitamins), dietary patterns, plasma lipoproteins, and heart disease endpoints in the population-based Framingham Offspring Studies. Longitudinal analyses of associations between diet and cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary disease risk in approximately 3,800 Offspring men and women over 8 years of follow-up (from 1984 to present) are planned. These analyses will consider key nutrients as well as newly defined dietary patterns in Framingham men and women. Cross sectional analyses of diet and plasma lipoprotein relationships in Offspring men and women at two examinations (Exam 3, 1984-88; and Exam 5, 1991-94) will also be conducted. All analyses will evaluate the total (direct and indirect) and joint effects of dietary nutrients. Where appropriate, analyses will control for plasma nutrient levels (folacin, vitamins B6 and B12 and homocysteine). The influence of potential confounding variables, effect modifiers, and intervening variables that lie in the causal pathway will be examined, as appropriate to the statistical model, including traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors and apoE isoform status. For the proposed analyses, several existing Framingham data sets will be utilized, including comprehensive data sets on nutrient intake, cardiovascular disease risk factors, clinically verified cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary endpoints and other covariates. The Offspring Exam 3 and 5 nutrition data sets include multiple day assessments of dietary intake which improve the ability to detect relationships of interest. The investigators propose to complete the Framingham Food Habit Questionnaire data set for Exam 5; this instrument includes important covariates for the proposed analyses (including vitamin supplement use). The combined data sets will allow the exploration of the proposed research questions with considerable power and carry out the research in an efficient manner. The investigators note that the proposed collaboration by investigators from Boston University and the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University is another strength of the research. They further note that the proposed research will provide important information that will be useful in the development of public nutrition policies and interventions for heart disease prevention.
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