Aim: To assess the relationship between dietary magnesium intake and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).
Methods: A conducted case-control study included 290 randomly selected cases (mean age 59.98 +/- 10.03 years) with first event of an acute coronary syndrome and 290 selected controls paired by sex, age and region (mean age 59.43 +/- 10.10 years) admitted to the same hospitals without any suspicion of coronary disease. A diet was assessed by an interviewer-administered semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire, and magnesium intake was derived from the nutrient database.
Results: Subjects with coronary heart disease had significantly lower intake of foods containing high levels of magnesium like whole grain (p<0.0001), legumes (p<0.05) and nuts (p<0.05). Lower dietary magnesium intake was found to be positively associated with risk of coronary heart disease (0.027).
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that dietary intake of magnesium was associated with reduced risk of coronary heart disease among Serbian population.