NUTRITION AND THE VARIATION IN LEVEL AND AGE PATTERNS OF MORTALITY

We examine the associations between nutrition and mortality at the nat ional level. Altogether four aspects of this association are explored: (1) total calories with expectation of life, (2) dietary composition with expectation of life, (3) total calories with the age patterns of mortality, and (4) dietary composition with the age patterns of mortal ity. The data consist of life tables and national food balance sheets for 341 populations from 96 countries. A preliminary principal compone nts analysis conducted on the dietary composition data yields three di etary components: (1) the overall quality and quantity of the diet, (2 ) the relative contribution of carbohydrates versus fats, and (3) the relative contribution of fats versus proteins. The results indicate th at expectation of life at birth increases with total calories, with ov erall quality and quantity of the diet, and with the ratio of fats to proteins. The ratio of carbohydrates to fats is negatively associated with level of mortality. However, evidence indicates that the main eff ect of the ratio of fats to proteins is reversed when diets are high i n quality and that all the effects tend to saturate at high nutrient a vailability. Variation in nutrition is also strongly associated with t he international variation in age patterns of mortality. For example, when expectation of life is held constant, populations with higher qua lity diets tend to have lower childhood mortality and higher adult mor tality. The results indicate that nutritional patterns are highly corr elated with much of the worldwide variation in mortality and may be a useful criterion for selecting or predicting the best suited model lif e table for use on a particular population.