ArticleThe Journal of nutrition2019
Global Improvement in Dietary Quality Could Lead to Substantial Reduction in Premature Death.
Article in The Journal of nutrition, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 82 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
82 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 158 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evolving Research Focus on Diet and Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review of 298 Cohort Studies Published from 2019 to 2024.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- The Child and Adult Care Food Program and young children's health: a systematic review.Nutrition reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Feasibility pilot study of a Japanese teaching kitchen program.Frontiers in public health · 2023Trial
- Do Athletes Cook? A Systematic Scoping Review of Culinary Nutrition in Athletes.Nutrition bulletin · 2026Article
- Protection and Delivery of Phytochemicals from Passive Encapsulation to Guaranteed Self-Assembly Induced by Amyloid Template for Chronic Disease Prevention via Modulating Microbial-Host Crosstalk.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Health and environmental evidence, challenges, and sustainable strategies of Planetary Health Diet: A mixed-methods review.Eco-Environment & Health · 2026Review
- Application of a Food-Based Nutritional Profiling System to Assess Diet Quality in Diet-Level Data: Evidence on Construct and Convergent Validity from the Hatoyama Cohort Study and Kusatsu Cohort Study.Current developments in nutrition · 2026Article
- A student-led pilot lecture in nutrition as a catalyst for curriculum change: A case study from one medical school.PloS one · 2026Article
- Inclusive Nutrition Care for LGBT+ Patients: Challenges and Opportunities for Dietitians-A Narrative Review.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Impact of healthy and sustainable diets on the mortality burden from cardiometabolic diseases and colorectal cancer in Mexican adults: a modeling study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- NutriNet-Brasil, a web-based prospective study on dietary patterns and risk of chronic diseases: cohort profile.BMJ open · 2025Article
- 'A Necessary Idea Given Our Current Climate': A Qualitative Study of Stakeholder Perspectives and Actions Required to Increase the Proportion of Plant to Animal Protein in Hospital Patient Menus.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2025Article
- The Association Between an Individual's Local Food Environment and Diet Quality among Postpartum Women Living in Rural Bangladesh.Current developments in nutrition · 2025Article
- Exploring Environmental and Cardiometabolic Impacts Associated with Adherence to the Sustainable EAT-Lancet Reference Diet: Findings from the China Health and Nutrition Survey.Environmental health perspectives · 2025Article
- Transitioning to healthy and sustainable diets has higher environmental and affordability trade-offs for emerging and developing economies.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Improved food image recognition by leveraging deep learning and data-driven methods with an application to Central Asian Food Scene.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Lancet Commission on rethinking coronary artery disease: moving from ischaemia to atheroma.Lancet (London, England) · 2025Review
- Having lunch at the staff canteen and plant food consumption among 19-39-year-old Finnish employees.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Associations between dietary diversity and self-rated health in a transverse study of four local food systems (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Portugal and Senegal).BMC public health · 2025Article
- Measuring and Forecasting the Healthy Eating Index in Iran: 1991-2027.International journal of preventive medicine · 2025Article
22 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe preventable premature mortality achievable by improvement in dietary quality at a global level is unclear.
objectiveThe aim of this study was to assess dietary quality globally, and to quantify the potential global impact of improving dietary quality on population health.
methodsWe applied the Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI, potential range 0-100) to a global dietary database to assess dietary quality among adults in 190 countries/territories. The relation of AHEI score to risks of major chronic disease was estimated from 2 large cohorts of men and women for whom many repeated dietary assessments during up to 30 years were available. We calculated the preventable premature deaths achievable by shifting from current national diets to a reference healthy diet.
resultsThe global mean AHEI score in 2017 was 49.5 for males and 50.5 for females. Large differences between current and target intakes existed for whole grains, sodium, long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, and fruits. From 1990 to 2017, the global mean AHEI score increased modestly from 45.4 to 50.0. Diet quality varied substantially across the world. Coastal Mediterranean nations, the Caribbean region, and Eastern Asia (except China and Mongolia) had a higher AHEI score, whereas Central Asia, the South Pacific, and Eastern and Northern Europe had a lower score. An improvement in dietary quality from the current global diet to the reference healthy diet could prevent >11 million premature deaths, ∼24% of total deaths in 2017. These included 1.6 million cancer deaths, 3.9 million coronary artery disease deaths, 1.0 million stroke deaths, 1.7 million respiratory disease deaths, 0.4 million neurodegenerative disease deaths, 0.5 million kidney disease deaths, 0.6 million diabetes deaths, and 1.2 million digestive disease deaths.
conclusionsGlobal dietary quality is slowly improving, but remains far from optimal and varies across countries. Improvements in dietary quality have the potential to reduce mortality rates substantially.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.