Abstract
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: As the global population ages, cardiovascular disease (CVD) emerges as a critical challenge for public health, with chronic inflammation identified as a key contributing risk factor. As a modifiable lifestyle factor, diet plays a critical role in the prevention of CVD. Given the established link between diet and inflammation, clarifying the relationship between dietary inflammatory potential and cardiovascular health (CVH) is of significant public health importance. This study aimed to evaluate the association between dietary inflammatory potential and CVH in an elderly population, and to explore the related role of the gut microbiota. METHODS: Dietary inflammatory potential was quantified using the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), CVH was assessed by the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 (LE8) score, and gut microbiome analysis was profiled by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. RESULTS: Results showed that higher DII scores, indicative of a pro-inflammatory dietary pattern, were significantly linked to reduced LE8 scores, suggesting an inverse association between dietary inflammatory potential and CVH. Based on the gut microbiome, participants with high CVH exhibited greater α diversity compared with those with low CVH, while both α and β diversity were higher in the anti-inflammatory diet group than in the pro-inflammatory diet group. These results indicate that anti-inflammatory diets may be associated with better CVH, possibly through the preservation of the ecological balance of the gut microbiota. Correlation analyses further pointed to several genera potentially associated with both dietary inflammatory potential and CVH. Functional predictions suggested that variation in dietary inflammatory potential could be linked to differences in microbial metabolic functions relevant to energy, lipid and glucose metabolism, and inflammatory processes. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, this study provides novel evidence linking dietary inflammatory potential, gut microbiota, and CVH in older adults, and offers preliminary insights for dietary interventions and microbiota-targeted strategies in CVD prevention.