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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.

Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1594481

This article is part of the Research TopicNutritional Epidemiology: Advances in the Analysis of Healthy and Sustainable Dietary PatternsView all 10 articles

Association between dietary index for gut microbiota and cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome: A population-based study

Provisionally accepted
Dan  LongDan Long1*Chenhan  MaoChenhan Mao2Haoyu  AnHaoyu An3Ying  ZhuYing Zhu1Yin  XuYin Xu1*
  • 1Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China
  • 2Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 3Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: Cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome represents a major health threat globally. The newly proposed dietary index for gut microbiota (DI-GM), which quantifies dietary quality associated with gut microbiota diversity, may influence the risk of CKM syndrome. Therefore, this study examined the correlation between DI-GM and the prevalence of CKM syndrome, aiming to provide insights for preventive innovation and tailored treatment methods.: This cross-sectional study included 8,400 adults aged 20 years and older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007-2018.The potential association between the DI-GM score and CKM syndrome was evaluated using univariable and multivariable weighted logistic regression models, restricted cubic spline (RCS), and subgroup analyses.The average age of the participants was 45.5 years, with 52.0% of the participants being male.A higher DI-GM score was significantly associated with a lower prevalence of CKM syndrome (OR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.81 to 0.92, P < 0.001). The RCS analysis further confirmed a linear relationship between DI-GM score and CKM syndrome (P for nonlinear = 0.194). Furthermore, subgroup analysis indicated that sex potentially influenced the association between DI-GM and CKM syndrome (P for interaction =0.004), with the protective effect being more pronounced among U.S. females.DI-GM score exhibits an inverse correlation with the risk of CKM syndrome. Optimizing dietary patterns to improve DI-GM is associated with reduced risk of CKM syndrome.

Keywords: Dietary Index for Gut Microbiota, cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, Gut Microbiota diversity, NHANES, Cross-sectional study

Received: 16 Mar 2025; Accepted: 17 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Long, Mao, An, Zhu and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Dan Long, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China
Yin Xu, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China

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