Journal of Aging Research

Research Article

Consumption of Nuts at Midlife and Healthy Aging in Women

Table 2

Odds of healthy aging, according to frequency of total consumption of nuts at midlife in the Nurses’ Health Study.


	Servings (28 grams for nuts and 15 grams for peanut butter)
	<1/month	1–<4/month	1–<2/week	2–<3/week	≥3/week	trend

Total nuts
Healthy agers (n = 5,538), %	6.6	21.6	21.6	14.8	35.3
Age-adjusted OR (95% CIs) of healthy vs usual aging	1.0 (Ref.)	1.02 (0.90, 1.17)	1.02 (0.89, 1.16)	1.05 (0.91, 1.21)	1.18 (1.04, 1.34)	<0.0001
Multivariable-adjusted^a OR (95% CIs) of healthy vs usual aging	1.0 (Ref.)	1.07 (0.93, 1.24)	1.04 (0.90, 1.20)	1.08 (0.93, 1.25)	1.14 (1.00, 1.31)	0.031
Multivariable-adjusted^b OR (95% CIs) of healthy vs usual aging	1.0 (Ref.)	1.06 (0.92, 1.22)	1.02 (0.88, 1.17)	1.05 (0.90, 1.22)	1.10 (0.96, 1.26)	0.160

Total nuts excluding peanut butter
Healthy agers (n = 5,538), %	20.8	35.2	20.2	8.2	15.6
Age-adjusted OR (95% CIs) of healthy vs usual aging	1.0 (Ref.)	1.12 (1.03, 1.22)	1.17 (1.07, 1.29)	1.32 (1.17, 1.49)	1.46 (1.32, 1.62)	<0.0001
Multivariable-adjusted^a OR (95% CIs) of healthy vs usual aging	1.0 (Ref.)	1.10 (1.01, 1.20)	1.08 (0.97, 1.19)	1.14 (1.00, 1.31)	1.21 (1.09, 1.35)	0.001
Multivariable-adjusted^b OR (95% CIs) of healthy vs usual aging	1.0 (Ref.)	1.08 (0.99, 1.18)	1.04 (0.94, 1.15)	1.09 (0.95, 1.25)	1.14 (1.02, 1.28)	0.046

^aLogistic regression model adjusted for age (years), education in 1992 (registered nurse, bachelor’s degree, and master or doctorate), marital status in 1996 (widowed, married, and single/separated/divorced), census tract median income (quintiles), BMI (kg/m²; <22, 22–24.9, 25–29.9, and ≥30), energy intake (quintiles of kcal/day), multivitamin use (yes/no), aspirin use (<1, 1‐2, or >2 tablets/week), pack-years of smoking (quintiles), physical activity (quintiles of METs-h/week), and physical function impairment in 2000 (yes/no). All covariates were collected in 1998 unless stated otherwise. ^bLogistic regression model further adjusted for Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 score (quintiles), excluding nuts as a component.