(P22-064-25) The Healthy Eating Index Is Associated With Lower Clinical Markers-Based Phenotypic Age in Participants of NHANES 2009–2012

Objectives: To investigate the association of the 2015 Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2015) with clinical markers-based phenotypic age in adult participants of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009-2010 and 2011-2012.

Methods: This study included 10,537 participants from the NHANES 2009–2010 and 2011–2012 cohorts. The HEI-2015 was calculated using dietary data obtained from 24-hour dietary recall interviews. Phenotypic age was determined using eight clinical markers measured in blood: albumin, creatinine, glucose, lymphocyte percentage, mean red cell volume, red cell distribution width, alkaline phosphatase, and white blood cell count. To account for chronological age, we calculated an age-adjusted phenotypic age by regressing phenotypic age on chronological age and using the residuals of this regression as the outcome. Multivariate energy-adjusted models were then employed to estimate the association between quintiles of the HEI-2015 and age-adjusted phenotypic age, accounting for the complex survey design.

Results: We observed a significant inverse association between quintiles of the HEI-2015 and age-adjusted phenotypic age (P for trend < 0.0001). From the multivariate model, the average age-adjusted phenotypic age residuals (in years) across HEI-2015 quintiles (from first to fifth) were 0.56(0.15), 0.74(0.15), 0.42(0.15), 0.03(0.15), and -0.93(0.15), respectively. Notably, participants in the fifth quintile of the HEI-2015 had an estimated 1.49 years lower (95% confidence interval (-1.78,-1.20)) age-adjusted phenotypic age compared to those in the first quintile.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that adhering to a healthy diet as measured by the HEI-2015 is associated with lower phenotypic age. These findings potentially shed light on potential mechanisms (e.g., slower biological aging) linking previous observed associations between the HEI-2105 and reduced risk of chronic diseases and mortality.

Funding Sources: No funding for these current analyses. NHANES data is free and publicly available.