Individual cereals intake is associated with progression of diabetes and diabetic chronic complications

Background and aims

The relationship between cereals intake and diabetes is unclear. We aimed to explore associations between individual cereals intake and risks of incident and progression of diabetes.

Methods

We included 502,490 participants from UK Biobank at baseline. A single touchscreen food frequency questionnaire was used to estimate the intake of individual cereals (bran, biscuit, oat, muesli, and other cereals). Main outcomes included incident diabetes and diabetic complications of cardiovascular disease (CVD), chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetic retinopathy (DR). Polygenic risk score (PRS) of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) was calculated for mediating effects analysis.

Results

Among participants without diabetes, when compared to subjects who never had cereals, hazard ratios (95%CI) of developing diabetes in those who had ≥6 bowls/week were 0.72 (0.67–0.78) for bran, 0.86 (0.81–0.92) for biscuit, 0.75(0.66–0.84) for oat, and 0.57(0.53,0.61) for muesli. Among people with diabetes without CVD, a higher intake of aforementioned four individual cereals was associated with a 13%–32 % lower risk of developing CVD. Among people with diabetes without CKD, a higher intake of aforementioned four individual cereals was associated with a 9%–28 % lower risk of developing CKD. We observed a significant mediating effect of the PRS of HbA1c for the association between aforementioned four individual cereals and developing diabetes.

Conclusion

A higher consumption of cereals was significantly associated with lower risks of diabetes and diabetic complications. Polygenic of HbA1c mediates the effect of cereals on incident diabetes.