Abstract
METHODS
To identify the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk-factor status and dietary habits of the surviving elderly participants of the initial Seven countries Study (SCS) cohort and newly recruited middle-aged men from the same villages. DESIGN Our total cohort of remaining survivors of the SCS consisted of 27 men aged 90 years old and over, while a younger cross-sectional study of 85 men between 53 and 73 years of age of the same catchment area were also examined. Biochemical, anthropometric, dietetic and lifestyle CVD risk factors information was obtained.
RESULTS
It was found that being overweight and having systolic blood pressure higher than the recommended were highly prevalent (>75%) among both age groups as well as abdominal obesity (about 50%). Hypercholesterolemia was highly prevalent in the younger population (68.8%), while smoking rates were relatively low among elderly. The daily meat consumption of SCS participants had doubled, from 35g in the 1960s to 76g among the SCS survivors in 2010 (p=0.002), while daily fruit and vegetable consumption had dropped from 656g to 266g (p<0.001). The younger participants also had increased dietary meat (130g/day) (p<0.001) and decreased fruits-vegetables intake (412g/day) (p<0.001) compared to 50 years ago. However, the younger population and elderly subjects showed higher fish intake (91g/day and 38g/day respectively, p<0.001) compared to 1960 and favorable olive oil consumption. In regard to nutrient intake, the majority of the subjects did not meet the recommendations for CVD prevention.
CONCLUSIONS
The study population is at increased risk for the development of CVD, while current dietary habits of the SCS survivors partially differed from those of 50 years ago.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Galioto A, Dominguez LJ, Pineo A, et al, 2008 Cardiovascular risk factors in centenarians. Exp Gerontol 43: 106–113.
Emberson JR, Whincup PH, Morris RW, et al, 2003 Re-assessing the contribution of serum total cholesterol, blood pressure and cigarette smoking to the aetiology of coronary heart disease: impact of regression dilution bias. Eur Heart J 24: 1719–1726.
de Lorgeril M, Salen P, 2006 The Mediterranean-style diet for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Public Health Nutr 9: 118–123.
Willett WC, Sacks F, Trichopoulou A, et al, 1995 “Mediterranean diet pyramid: a cultural model for healthy eating”. Am J Clin Nutr 61: S1402–S1406.
Keys A, 1970 Coronary heart disease in seven countries. Circulation 41: S1380–S1367.
Sans S, Kesteloot H, Kromhout D, 1997 The burden of cardiovascular diseases mortality in Europe. Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology on Cardiovascular Mortality and Morbidity Statistics in Europe. Eur Heart J 18: 1231–1248.
Menotti A, Lanti M, Kromhout D, et al, 2007 Forty-year coronary mortality trends and changes in major risk factors in the first 10 years of follow-up in the seven countries study. Eur J Epidemiol 22: 747–754.
Kafatos A, Diacatou A, Voukiklaris G, et al, 1997 Heart disease risk-factor status and dietary changes in the Cretan population over the past 30 y: the Seven Countries Study. Am J Clin Nutr 65: 1882–1886.
Voukiklaris GE, Kafatos AG, Dontas AS, 1996 Changing prevalence of coronary heart disease risk factors and cardiovascular diseases in men of a rural area of Crete from 1960 to 1991. Angiology 47: 43–49.
Pauwels EK, 2011 The protective effect of the Mediterranean diet: focus on cancer and cardiovascular risk. Med Princ Pract 20: 103–111.
Park Y, Subar AF, Hollenbeck A, et al, 2011 Dietary fiber intake and mortality in the NIH-AARP diet and health study. Arch Intern Med 171: 1061–1068.
Total Health Life 2005 “High Blood Sugar”. Total Health Institute. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
American Heart Association. Understand Your Risk of Heart Attack. https://doi.org/www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartAttack/UnderstandYourRiskofHeartAttack/Understand-Your-Risk-of-Heart Attack_UCM_002040_ Article.jsp#.TtzbH7KG_nY. Accessed 11 November 2011.
Kafatos A, Verhagen H, Moschandreas J, et al, 2000 Mediterranean diet of Crete: foods and nutrient content. J Am Diet Assoc 100: 1487–1493.
German Nutrition Society (DGE), Austrian Nutrition Society (ÖGE), Swiss Society for Nutrition Research (SGE), Swish Nutrition Association (SVE). Reference values for nutrients intake. 1st ed. in English: 2002.
Perls T, Terry DF, Silver M, et al, 2000 Centenarians and the genetics of longevity. Results Probl Cell Differ 29: 1–20.
Rajpathak SN, Liu Y, Ben-David O, et al, 2011 Lifestyle factors of people with exceptional longevity. J Am Geriatr Soc 59: 1509–1512.
Ardern CI, Janssen I, Ross R, et al, 2004 Development of health-related waist circumference thresholds within BMI categories. Obes Res 12: 1094–1103.
Westerterp KR, Meijer EP, 2001 Physical activity and parameters of aging: a physiological perspective. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 56: 7–12.
Anderson KM, Odell PM, Wilson PW, et al, 1991 Cardiovascular disease risk profiles. Am Heart J 121: 293–298.
Vasan RS, Larson MG, Leip EP, et al, 2001 Impact of high-normal blood pressure on the risk of cardiovascular disease. N Engl J Med 345: 1291–1297.
Pitsavos C, Panagiotakos DB, Chrysohoou C, et al, 2003 Epidemiology of cardiovascular risk factors in Greece: aims, design and baseline characteristics of the ATTICA study. BMC Public Health 20: 32.
Burns DM, 2003 Epidemiology of smoking-induced cardiovascular disease. Prog Cardiovasc Dis 46: 11–29.
Moschandreas J, Kafatos A, Aravanis C, et al, 2005 Long-term predictors of survival for the Seven Countries Study cohort from Crete: from 1960 to 2000. Int J Cardiol 100: 85–91.
Kafatos A, Mamalakis G, 1993 Policies and programs in nutrition and physical fitness in Greece. World Rev Nutr Diet 72: 206–217.
Sarri KO, Tzanakis NE, Linardakis MK, et al, 2003 Effects of Greek Orthodox Christian Church fasting on serum lipids and obesity. BMC Public Health 16: 16.
Panagiotakos DB, Polystipioti A, Papairakleous N, et al, 2007 Long-term adoption of a Mediterranean diet is associated with a better health status in elderly people; a cross-sectional survey in Cyprus. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 16: 331–337.
Wang L, Folsom AR, Eckfeldt JH, 2003 Plasma fatty acid composition and incidence of coronary heart disease in middle aged adults: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 13: 256–266.
Wu H, Dwyer KM, Fan Z, et al, 2003 Dietary fiber and progression of atherosclerosis: the Los Angeles Atherosclerosis Study. Am J Clin Nutr 78: 1085–1091.
Bhupathiraju SN, Tucker KL, 2011 Coronary heart disease prevention: nutrients, foods, and dietary patterns. Clin Chim Acta 412: 1493–1514.
Debreceni B, Debreceni L, 2012 Why do homocysteine-lowering B vitamin and antioxidant E vitamin supplementations appear to be ineffective in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases? Cardiovasc Ther 30: 227–233.
Hedayati SS, Minhajuddin AT, Ijaz A, et al, 2012 Association of urinary sodium/potassium ratio with blood pressure: Sex and racial differences. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 7: 315–322.
Athyros VG, Hatzitolios AI, Karagiannis A, et al, 2011 Improving the implementation of current guidelines for the management of major coronary heart disease risk factors by multifactorial intervention. The imperative renal analysis. Arch Med Sci 7: 984–992.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hatzis, C.M., Papandreou, C., Patelarou, E. et al. A 50-year follow-up of the Seven Countries Study: Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, food and nutrient intakes among Cretans. Hormones 12, 379–385 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03401303
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03401303