Prevention & lipidsCohort study
Dietary index for gut microbiota, Life's Essential 8 scores, and risk of cardiovascular disease: a multinational cohort study
- Prospective cohort study
- multinational
- UK Biobank and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
Authors' conclusion
In two large Western populations, greater adherence to a gut microbiota-friendly diet was associated with a lower risk of CVD. This benefit is additive to improvements in LE8 cardiovascular health and is particularly relevant for individuals at high risk.
Study context
- Population
- UK Biobank and NHANES participants200,690 UK Biobank
- Exposure
- High vs low dietary index for gut microbiota (DI-GM)
- Outcome
- Incident (UK Biobank) and prevalent (NHANES) CVD
- Follow-up
- Median 13.33 years (IQR 12.66-14.16) in UK Biobank
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
CVD
High DI-GM vs Low DI-GMEstimate (95% CI)
UK Biobank incident CVD; 6% lower risk
HR 0.94(0.91–0.97)
NHANES prevalent CVD
OR 0.78(0.63–0.97)
- Incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in UK Biobank
- 24 581
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | HR (95% CI) | |
|---|---|---|
| CVD in individuals with suboptimal cardiovascular health by LE8 (subgroup) | 0.77 (0.66–0.89) | |
| 0.512Hazard ratio (log scale) |
Additive interaction DI-GM × LE8
- Significant additive interaction between DI-GM and LE8
- all P values <0.05
Original publication
Dietary index for gut microbiota, Life's Essential 8 scores, and risk of cardiovascular disease: a multinational cohort study. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 12 March 2026. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwag066
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it