Overall, the lack of association observed may be explained by
several considerations. Firstly, those who survive to older age may
have less risk of chronic disease in general due to protective genetic
and/or factors in relation to the development of chronic diseases
[35]. Secondly, the process of cancer and CVD development may
occur earlier than the mean age of participants (77.3 ± 5.4 years),
and thus any diet-disease association may have been missed.
Thirdly, dietary patterns in younger adults are different to those in
older adults and thus dietary patterns of the aged may not be
representative of aetiology. Finally, it is possible that participants
who developed cancer or CVD were unable to participate in wave 6
due to illness, or died prior to wave 6 of causes other than cancer or
CVD.