Polyunsaturated fatty acids associated with delayed biological aging: NHANES 2005–2010

Abstract Background Research has shown that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, telomere shortening delay and other functions, which can delay biological aging. Phenotypic age (PhenoAge), as a new indicator to assess the level of aging, plays a certain predictive role in the occurrence and development of diseases. The objective of our research was to investigate the association between dietary PUFAs intake and PhenoAge. Methods The data for our research was sourced from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), covering the years 2005 to 2010. Multivariate linear regression was employed to examine the potential associations. Furthermore, subgroup analyses were used to explore this correlation in different populations. Sensitivity analysis has demonstrated the stability of our conclusion. Results Our study included 13326 individuals in total. The mean age was 50.09 years. The median level of PUFAs consumption was 17.07 g/ day. We observed the negative associations between PUFAs intake and PhenoAge after adjusting all covariates (β= -0.03; 95% confidence interval, -0.05 to -0.01). Besides, we categorized PUFAs intake into quartiles and found the existence of a linear relationship after adjusting all covariates (p for trend: 0.002). Subgroup analysis has demonstrated that this negative relationship remains stable across different population groups. The sensitivity analysis also confirms the stability of our conclusion. Conclusions In conclusion, our research indicate a negative association between PUFAs intake and PhenoAge. This association demonstrates a linear pattern, which means dietary PUFAs intake was associated with delayed biological aging.