Prospective study of diet and venous thromboembolism in US women and men.

The authors investigated diet as a risk factor for the development of venous thromboembolism (VTE) among 129,430 US women and men in the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. There were 2,892 cases of VTE from 1984 through 2008. Information on participants' dietary intakes was collected every 2-4 years using a food frequency questionnaire. Dietary patterns (prudent vs. Western), food intakes (fruit, vegetables, fish, red and processed meats, and alcohol), and nutrient intakes (omega-3 fatty acids, trans fatty acids, total fiber, and vitamins K(1), B(6), B(12), and E) were categorized into quintiles, and the risk of VTE was compared among quintiles with the use of Cox proportional hazard models. After adjusting the results for 17 potential confounders, the authors found that adherence to the Western dietary pattern was associated with an increased risk of VTE in men (for the highest quintile vs. the lowest, relative risk = 1.43, 95% confidence interval: 1.16, 1.78; P for trend < 0.001) but not in women (relative risk = 1.14, 95% confidence interval: 0.91, 1.42; P for trend = 0.09). Favorable associations were found in the pooled analysis for intakes of vitamins E and B(6) and fiber. For intakes of red and processed meat and trans fatty acids, no association was found in women, whereas a significant positive association was found in men. These results suggest a weak association between diet and the risk of VTE.