The role of Mediterranean diet in cancer incidence and mortality in the older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

The magnitude of benefit of Mediterranean diet in cancer prevention and mortality in older adults is still unclear, therefore we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. Outcomes considered were cancer incidence and cancer mortality. In studies evaluating cancer incidence as a time-to-event endpoint and adherence as quantiles, HR was 0.885 (95% CI 0.773–1.013, I2 = 44%). Including ORs, exploratory pooled effect size was 0.876 (0.794–0.966, I2 = 34%), consistently with results of studies evaluating ORs for adherence as one-point increase (OR 0.744, 0.570–0.972, I2 = 90%). No clear benefit was observed on cancer mortality, with pooled HR of 0.935 (0.800-1.093, I2 = 0%). Significant interaction was observed for ORs according to cancer type but not between medium and high adherence for both outcomes. Our findings suggest that MD plays a protective role in cancer incidence in advanced age, but no clear effect on cancer mortality was observed.