The study followed 39,167 women from the Women’s Health Study, with 28,034 women providing blood samples. Participants self-reported their nut consumption at baseline and were followed up with a food frequency questionnaire. The researchers considered cardiovascular death as their primary outcome and used medical records along with the national death index and death certificates to get this information.
With an average follow-up of 19 years, the results suggested that those women who consumed nuts had a lower risk of cardiovascular mortality. The data was adjusted for individual’s age, body mass index, smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, postmenopausal status, marital status, family history of premature myocardial infarction, and alternate healthy eating index score. The study also showed that lipids, inflammatory markers and glucose metabolism account for a portion of the lowered cardiovascular mortality, assuming a causal relationship between nut consumption and cardiovascular mortality.