The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII^®) and Its Correlations with Metabolic Parameters in a Group of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus ^†

Abstract

Inflammation plays a key role in insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular risk. Subclinical inflammation has many causes, but diet seems to be a major component in the prognosis of related diseases. In nutritional research methodologies, there has recently been tremendous progress in identifying scores that can assess the inflammatory traits of diet. One of these scores is the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII^®). The aim of this study was to evaluate dietary intake and calculate the DII^® in a group of patients with type 2 diabetes and correlate it with other metabolic parameters. Methods. We evaluated a group of patients with T2DM who presented for their routine checkup in our clinic. We assessed each patient’s anthropometric and metabolic parameters and evaluated dietary intake using EPIC FFQ, which was later interpreted using FETA. We calculated the DII^® using the validated formula. Results. Our study was conducted on 263 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, among which 108 were men (41.1%). The average age in the studied population was 62.46 +/− 9.45 years, without significant differences between men and women. Only 16 patients (6.1%) were of normal weight, 86 were overweight (32.7%) and 161 presented as obese (61.2%). Men in our study group showed a significantly higher DII score than women, and they also had significantly worse metabolic parameters. The DII correlated with weight and body fat percentage. Conclusions. The DII showed a relatively high proinflammatory diet in patients with T2DM studied and found that men were more exposed to diet inflammation than women. This might suggest that nutritional interventions in patients with T2DM should be targeted particularly to this group of patients.