Diet-Quality Scores and the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes inMen

OBJECTIVE—To 1) compare associations of diet-quality scores, which were inversely asso-ciated with cardiovascular disease, with incident type 2 diabetes and 2) test for differences in absolute-risk reduction across various strata. RESEARCHDESIGNANDMETHODS—Men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, who were initially free of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer (n = 41,615), were followed for #20 years. The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) 2005, the alternative HEI (aHEI) the Recommended Food Score, the alternativeMediterraneanDiet (aMED) Score, and theDietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Score were calculated from food-frequency question-naires. Cox proportional hazard models with time-varying covariates were used to assess risk by quintiles and continuous intervals. RESULTS—There were 2,795 incident cases of type 2 diabetes. After multivariate adjustment, the aHEI, aMED, and DASH scores were significantly associated with reduced risk. A 1-SD increase was associated with 9–13 % reduced risk (P, 0.01), and the DASH score was asso-ciated with lower risk independent of other scores. These scores were associated with lower absolute risk among those who were overweight or obese compared with normal weight (P fo