Abstract
Considering the importance of induction and maintenance of remission in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), different studies investigated the association between adherence to healthy dietary patterns and disease severity. This cross-sectional study investigated the association between Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet score and disease severity in patients with UC. In this study, 158 patients with UC were included. Disease severity was determined by a gastroenterologist using the Mayo score. We assess the dietary intake over the past year by a 168-item food frequency questionnaire. The MIND diet score was calculated based on the Morris et al. method. The logistic regression was used to analyze the association between disease severity and MIND diet score tertiles, adjusted for demographic, disease-related, and nutritional covariates. The mean age of participants was 42.52 ± 12.61 years old. There were no significant differences in demographic characteristics of patients across different tertiles of the MIND diet score except for prednisolone use, and following a special diet (p < 0.05). The patients in the higher tertiles of the MIND diet score consumed significantly more green leafy vegetables (P < 0.001), other vegetables (P < 0.001), berries (P = 0.02), nuts (P = 0.02), and olive oils (P = 0.0), but consumed less fast fries' foods (P = 0.03) than those in the lower tertiles. The results of adjusted regression showed that compared with the patients in the first tertile of the MIND diet score, the patients in the third tertile had significantly lower odds of disease severity (OR: 0.39, 95% CI: 0.16, 0.97). High adherence to the MIND diet score was significantly associated with lower odds of severe UC. However, more prospective and interventional studies are needed to provide a more complete overview of the association between MIND diet score and UC severity.