Background
Previous research has shown that diet is associated with low-grade systemic inflammation among adults. However, no study has yet been conducted to explore the association between inflammatory potential of diet and low-grade systemic inflammation among adolescents whose dietary behavior may be different from adults.
Methods
We examine the predictive ability of 24-hour recall-derived dietary inflammatory index (DII) scores on inflammation among 532 European adolescents in the HELENA cross-sectional study. The DII is a literature-derived dietary index developed to predict inflammation. The DII was calculated per 1000 calories and was tested against C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukins (IL)-1,2,4, 10, TNF-α, ICAM, VCAM and IFN-γ. All inflammatory markers had non-normal distributions and therefore were log transformed. Analyses were performed using multivariable linear regression, adjusting for age, sex, city, BMI, smoking and physical activity.
Results
Pro-inflammatory diet (higher DII scores) was associated with increased levels of various inflammatory markers: TNF-α, IL-1, 2, IFN-γ and VCAM (bDIIt3vs1= 0.13, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.25; 0.13, 95% CI 0.001, 0.25; 0.40, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.77; 0.53, 95% CI: 0.05, 1.01; 0.07, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.13 respectively).
Conclusion
These results reinforce the fact that diet, as a whole, plays an important role in modifying inflammation in adolescents.