Artículos de revista DEIO - EIOS Aldizkari artikuluak

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Open Access
Wittmann type strong laws of large numbers for blockwise m-negatively associated random variables
(Dalian University of Technology , 2016) Zhang, Guohui; Urmeneta Martín-Calero, Henar; Volodin, Andrei; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika
In this paper, Wittmann type strong laws of large numbers for blockwise mnegatively associated random variables are established which extend and improve the related known works in the literature.
Open Access
Simulation of household electricity consumption by using functional data analysis
(Taylor & Francis, 2018) Mallor Giménez, Fermín; Moler Cuiral, José Antonio; Urmeneta Martín-Calero, Henar; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa
Open Access
Effects of reduced levels of sulfite in wine production using mixtures with lysozyme and dimethyl dicarbonate on levels of volatile and biogenic amines
(Taylor & Francis, 2016) Ancín Azpilicueta, Carmen; Jiménez Moreno, Nerea; Moler Cuiral, José Antonio; Nieto-Rojo, Rodrigo; Urmeneta Martín-Calero, Henar; Química Aplicada; Kimika Aplikatua; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa
Open Access
Oak wood extracts applied to the grapevine. An alternative to obtain quality Garnacha wines
(Elsevier, 2018) Jiménez Moreno, Nerea; Moler Cuiral, José Antonio; Urmeneta Martín-Calero, Henar; Suberviola Ripa, Julián; Cibriain Sabalza, Félix; Gandía Pascual, Luis; Ancín Azpilicueta, Carmen; Química Aplicada; Kimika Aplikatua; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa
Open Access
Use of symmetry assessment methods in the context of breast surgery
(Springer-Verlag, 2020-05-28) Montón Etxeberria, Javier; Torres, Asia; Gijón, María; Chang-Azancot, Luis; Kenig, Nitzan; Trandafir, Paula Camelia; Jordán, Joaquín; Insausti, Ricardo; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika
Background: different procedures are available to help clinicians evaluate symmetry and cosmetic results in an objective manner after conservative breast cancer surgery. However, there are no similar methods in esthetic breast surgery, where the subjective assessment of the surgeon or the patient is usually considered the gold standard. The aim of this study is to evaluate the application of four software programs in the context of esthetic breast surgery and contrast their results with those of the subjective evaluation by a series of healthcare professionals. Materials and Methods: sixty cosmetic breast surgery images were studied using four software programs considered appropriate for the objective evaluation (BCCT3.core®, Breast Analyzing Tool®, Objective Breast Cosmesis Scale® and GBAI-Global Breast Asymmetry Index®). The same cases were assessed by a group of 100 health professionals through an online survey as a subjective evaluation method. Results: concordance among participants was high (κ = 0.753) as well as between three of the objective methods (BSI, OBCS, GBAI), but not with the BCCT parameter. There was no association between objective and subjective methods studied by the survey, according to the logistic regression model. The 'symmetry' and 'asymmetry' categories were accurately distinguished by the objective methods. Conclusions : objective evaluation in esthetic breast surgery has less variability than subjective assessment, and the estimation is possible through certain software previously restricted to conservative breast cancer surgery. Level of Evidence IV: this journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266.
Open Access
Analysis of wind power productions by means of an analog model
(Elsevier, 2014) Martín, María Luisa; Valero Rodríguez, Francisco; Pascual, Ananda; Sanz Rodrigo, Javier; Frías Paredes, Laura; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa
The purpose of this work is to evaluate the performance of an analog model on day-ahead forecasting of wind power production over large European regions based in Ireland, Denmark and Germany. To do this, several data sets have been used: sea level pressure field over the North Atlantic and wind power outputs from individual wind farms and from wind farm clusters. The analog method uses Principal Component Analysis to reduce the dimensionality of the large-scale atmospheric database. Then, the analog method is based on the finding in the historic sea level pressure database, a principal component subset of large-scale atmospheric patterns that are the most similar to a large-scale atmospheric pattern used as input. Similar atmospheric situations to a particular atmospheric situation to be modeled have been determined and from them, different wind power outputs have been estimated. Several deterministic and probabilistic results are shown. Results of bias, spatial correlations and root mean squared errors between the estimated and observational wind power outputs are displayed. Concerning wind farm data set, the analog method improves both climatology and persistence in the Danish test case. The probabilistic results are shown by means of Brier Skill Scores and reliability diagrams. Danish test case shows pretty good BSS results with underestimation of the observational wind power frequencies in the reliability diagrams. For aggregated data sets, the model performing improves climatology in both Danish and German test cases, showing the latter better results than the former. A comparison between the two Danish databases, wind farm and aggregated data, gives as result higher BSSs for aggregated data than for the wind farm data set in high wind power outputs. The process used in this work to estimate wind power productions based on finding analogs in a previously reduced large-scale atmospheric data has proven to be a good technique to analyze the effect of the regional wind climate contribution to the daily wind output prediction.
Open Access
The Temporal Distortion Index (TDI): a new procedure to analyze solar radiation forecasts
(American Institute of Physics, 2017-06-27) Gastón Romeo, Martín; Frías Paredes, Laura; Fernández-Peruchena, Carlos; Mallor Giménez, Fermín; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa
In this work a new point of view to evaluate prediction models is presented. It is captured by mean of a novelty dissimilarity measure among time series, the Temporal Distortion Index (TDI), which compiles a new methodology to evaluate and control the solar radiation prediction models. This methodology complements the traditional verification measures found in the literature by adding the evaluation of the impact that time misalignments produces in the forecast accuracy. This new measure of error will allow a deeper knowledge of the prediction model behaviour besides a bi-criteria perspective to the problem of comparing different forecasts. The information about temporal features of the forecasts could play a key role in tasks as combination of different prediction models, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants operation or energy grid integration.
Open Access
Introducing the Temporal Distortion Index to perform a bidimensional analysis of renewable energy forecast
(Elsevier, 2015-11-21) Frías Paredes, Laura; Mallor Giménez, Fermín; León, Teresa; Gastón Romeo, Martín; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
Wind has been the largest contributor to the growth of renewal energy during the early 21st century. However, the natural uncertainty that arises in assessing the wind resource implies the occurrence of wind power forecasting errors which perform a considerable role in the impacts and costs in the wind energy integration and its commercialization. The main goal of this paper is to provide a deeper insight in the analysis of timing errors which leads to the proposal of a new methodology for its control and measure. A new methodology, based on Dynamic TimeWarping, is proposed to be considered in the estimation of accuracy as attribute of forecast quality. A new dissimilarity measure, the Temporal Distortion Index, among time series is introduced to complement the traditional verication measures found in the literature. Furthermore we provide a bi-criteria perspective to the problem of comparing different forecasts. The methodology is illustrated with several examples including a real case.
Open Access
Assessing energy forecasting inaccuracy by simultaneously considering temporal and absolute errors
(Elsevier, 2017-04-17) Frías Paredes, Laura; Mallor Giménez, Fermín; Gastón Romeo, Martín; León, Teresa; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
Recent years have seen a growing trend in wind and solar energy generation globally and it is expected that an important percentage of total energy production comes from these energy sources. However, they present inherent variability that implies uctuations in energy generation that are dicult to forecast. Thus, forecasting errors have a considerable role in the impacts and costs of renewable energy integration, management, and commercialization. This study presents an important advance in the task of analyzing prediction models, in particular, in the timing component of prediction error, which improves previous pioneering results. A new method to match time series is dened in order to assess energy forecasting accuracy. This method relies on a new family of step patterns, an essential component of the algorithm to evaluate the temporal distortion index (TDI). This family minimizes the mean absolute error (MAE) of the transformation with respect to the reference series (the real energy series) and also allows detailed control of the temporal distortion entailed in the prediction series. The simultaneous consideration of temporal and absolute errors allows the use of Pareto frontiers as characteristic error curves. Real examples of wind energy forecasts are used to illustrate the results.
Open Access
Evaluation of grape stems and grape stem extracts for sulfur dioxide replacement during grape wine production
(Elsevier, 2023) Pires Nogueira, Danielle; Jiménez Moreno, Nerea; Esparza Catalán, Irene; Moler Cuiral, José Antonio; Ferreira-Santos, Pedro; Sagüés Sarasa, Ana; Teixeira, José António; Ancín Azpilicueta, Carmen; Ciencias; Zientziak; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
Sulfur dioxide (SO2), the main preservative in wine, may affect the sensory properties of the wines, as well as cause allergic reactions and headaches in sensitive people. The aim of this work was to evaluate the replacement of SO2 in Tempranillo wines with Mazuelo grape stem products. Five Tempranillo red wines were elaborated: positive control (60 mg/L SO2); negative control with no preservatives; Mazuelo extract (200 mg/L); Mazuelo extract combined with SO2 (100 mg/L + 20 mg/L); and Mazuelo stem (400 mg/L). The oenological parameters, antioxidant capacity, total phenolic (TP), total flavonoids (TF) and total anthocyanins (TA) contents were determined. Additionally, individual phenols were analyzed by HPLC-DAD-FLD. The spectrophotometric analyses showed that the wines had similar antioxidant capacities and concentrations of TP and TF. However, TA was more affected by the lack of SO2 as anthocyanins presented higher concentrations in positive control samples. The concentrations of individual phenols followed a similar path in all samples. Wines containing sulfites were more similar than the other treatments. However, these similarities were not reflected on the sensory analysis performed, as triangle test did not show differences between the wine with extract addition and the positive control wine. Therefore, Mazuelo stem extract could be a possible strategy for SO2 replacement. Nevertheless, further studies are necessary to confirm the potential of grape stem extracts as wine preservative.
Open Access
Horizontal collaboration in freight transport: concepts, benefits and environmental challenges
(Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya, 2017) Serrano Hernández, Adrián; Juan Pérez, Ángel Alejandro; Faulín Fajardo, Javier; Pérez Bernabeu, Elena; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Estadística e Investigación Operativa
Since its appearance in the 1990s, horizontal collaboration (HC) practices have revealed them-selves as catalyzers for optimizing the distribution of goods in freight transport logistics. After introducing the main concepts related to HC, this paper offers a literature review on the topic and provides a classification of best practices in HC. Then, the paper analyses the main benefits and optimization challenges associated with the use of HC at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Emerging trends such as the concept of ‘green’ or environmentally-friendly HC in freighttransport logistics are also introduced. Finally, the paper discusses the need of using hybrid optimization methods, such as simheuristics and learnheuristics, in solving some of the previously identified challenges in real-life scenarios dominated by uncertainty and dynamic conditions.
Open Access
Modelado de la atención en consulta externa en un hospital público: una herramienta de gestión
(Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), 2014) Gáfaro Rojas, Aurora Inés; Mallor Giménez, Fermín; Azcárate Camio, Cristina; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa
Problema: aunque se dispone de herramientas que pueden apoyar la planificación de las actividades asistenciales, hasta el momento no existe una distribución de los servicios de atención en salud cuya estructura orgánica obtenga resultados óptimos, es decir, que garantice un flujo normal de pacientes sin generar colas excesiva, con tiempos de espera adecuados, disponibilidad apropiada de personal y directrices estratégicas de programas concretos, centrados en la concepción y organización de actividades de acuerdo con la demanda de la población atendida. Objetivo: describir y aplicar una herramienta para modelar el proceso de llegadas de pacientes en un hospital colombiano, encaminado al mejoramiento de la gestión organizacional. Método: este estudio corresponde a una investigación operativa que aplica un modelo de simulación. Resultado: se generó un modelo matemático útil en otros contextos similares para la generación de llegadas o análisis de la afluencia de pacientes.
Open Access
Metodo estatistikoak saiakera klinikoetan
(Universidad del País Vasco, 2014) Galbete Jiménez, Arkaitz; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa
Saiakera klinikoak esperimentu estatistikoen artean kasu bereziak dira bere sekuentzia egiturarengatik eta saiakeraren unitateak gizakiak direlako. Honek erregulazio zorrotza eskatzen du eta datuen biltze eta tratatze prozesuan eragina du, askotan metodologia espezifikoa edo berria erabiliz gainera. Artikulu honetan, saiakera klinikoen diseinuan agertzen diren arazo estatistiko batzuk azaltzen dira, pazienteak tratamenduetan esleitzeko metodo esanguratsu batzuen bilduma bat egiten da eta azken urteotan garrantzia hartzen ari den inferentzia prozesu desberdin bat aurkezten da.
Open Access
Relación del gasto en ocio y vacaciones con variables del ciclo de vida del hogar, demográficas, geográficas y económicas
(Universidad de Alicante, 2016) Portilla, Idoia; Díaz de Rada Igúzquiza, Vidal; Abascal Fernández, Elena; Sociología; Soziologia; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa
El gasto en ocio y vacaciones de los hogares puede depender de variables demográficas, geográficas y económicas asociadas al hogar o al sustentador principal. También afecta el tipo de hogar, cuya clasificación puede realizarse según los modelos considerados en la teoría del ciclo de vida del hogar (CVH). En este trabajo, se utiliza el programa estadístico SPAD para aplicar la metodología de la caracterización de la variable y analizar el poder explicativo de un total de doce variables sobre el gasto en ‘vacaciones todo incluido’, ‘servicios culturales’ y otras cinco partidas destacadas del grupo ‘Ocio, espectáculos y cultura’ de la Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares (EPF) de España. El estudio confirma el interés de considerar variables como el número de dependientes para segmentar consumidores de ocio y vacaciones, pero no de variables más complejas basadas en modelos del CVH.
Open Access
Intermuscular coherence between homologous muscles during dynamic and static movement periods of bipedal squatting
(American Physiological Society, 2020) Kenville, Rouven; Maudrich, Tom; Vidaurre Arbizu, Carmen; Maudrich, Dennis; Villringer, Arno; Ragert, Patrick; Nikulin, Vadim V.; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa
Coordination of functionally coupled muscles is a key aspect of movement execution. Demands on coordinative control increase with the number of involved muscles and joints, as well as with differing movement periods within a given motor sequence. While previous research has provided evidence concerning inter- and intramuscular synchrony in isolated movements, compound movements remain largely unexplored. With this study, we aimed to uncover neural mechanisms of bilateral coordination through intermuscular coherence (IMC) analyses between principal homologous muscles during bipedal squatting (BpS) at multiple frequency bands (alpha, beta, and gamma). For this purpose, participants performed bipedal squats without additional load, which were divided into three distinct movement periods (eccentric, isometric, and concentric). Surface electromyography (EMG) was recorded from four homologous muscle pairs representing prime movers during bipedal squatting. We provide novel evidence that IMC magnitudes differ between movement periods in beta and gamma bands, as well as between homologous muscle pairs across all frequency bands. IMC was greater in the muscle pairs involved in postural and bipedal stability compared with those involved in muscular force during BpS. Furthermore, beta and gamma IMC magnitudes were highest during eccentric movement periods, whereas we did not find movement-related modulations for alpha IMC magnitudes. This finding thus indicates increased integration of afferent information during eccentric movement periods. Collectively, our results shed light on intermuscular synchronization during bipedal squatting, as we provide evidence that central nervous processing of bilateral intermuscular functioning is achieved through task-dependent modulations of common neural input to homologous muscles. NEW & NOTEWORTHY It is largely unexplored how the central nervous system achieves coordination of homologous muscles of the upper and lower body within a compound whole body movement, and to what extent this neural drive is modulated between different movement periods and muscles. Using intermuscular coherence analysis, we show that homologous muscle functions are mediated through common oscillatory input that extends over alpha, beta, and gamma frequencies with different synchronization patterns at different movement periods.
Open Access
Improving the quality of satellite imagery based on ground-truth data from rain gauge stations
(MDPI, 2018) Militino, Ana F.; Ugarte Martínez, María Dolores; Pérez Goya, Unai; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua
Multitemporal imagery is by and large geometrically and radiometrically accurate, but the residual noise arising from removal clouds and other atmospheric and electronic effects can produce outliers that must be mitigated to properly exploit the remote sensing information. In this study, we show how ground-truth data from rain gauge stations can improve the quality of satellite imagery. To this end, a simulation study is conducted wherein different sizes of outlier outbreaks are spread and randomly introduced in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the day and night land surface temperature (LST) of composite images from Navarre (Spain) between 2011 and 2015. To remove outliers, a new method called thin-plate splines with covariates (TpsWc) is proposed. This method consists of smoothing the median anomalies with a thin-plate spline model, whereby transformed ground-truth data are the external covariates of the model. The performance of the proposed method is measured with the square root of the mean square error (RMSE), calculated as the root of the pixel-by-pixel mean square differences between the original data and the predicted data with the TpsWc model and with a state-space model with and without covariates. The study shows that the use of ground-truth data reduces the RMSE in both the TpsWc model and the state-space model used for comparison purposes. The new method successfully removes the abnormal data while preserving the phenology of the raw data. The RMSE reduction percentage varies according to the derived variables (NDVI or LST), but reductions of up to 20% are achieved with the new proposal.
Open Access
Checking unimodality using isotonic regression: an application to breast cancer mortality rates
(Springer, 2016) Rueda, Cristina; Ugarte Martínez, María Dolores; Militino, Ana F.; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Estadística e Investigación Operativa
In some diseases it is well-known that a unimodal mortality pattern exists. A clear example in developed countries is breast cancer, where mortality increased sharply until the nineties and then decreased. This clear unimodal pattern is not necessarily applicable to all regions within a country. In this paper, we develop statistical tools to check if the unimodality pattern persists within regions using order restricted inference. Break points as well as confidence intervals are also provided. In addition, a new test for checking monotonicity against unimodality is derived allowing to discriminate between a simple increasing pattern and an up-then-down response pattern. A comparison with the widely used joinpoint regression technique under unimodality is provided. We show that the joinpoint technique could fail when the underlying function is not piecewise linear. Results will be illustrated using age-specific breast cancer mortality data from Spain in the period 1975-2005.
Open Access
Prostate cancer incidence and mortality in Navarre (Spain)
(Gobierno de Navarra. Departamento de Salud, 2018) Etxeberria Andueza, Jaione; Guevara Eslava, Marcela; Moreno Iribas, Conchi; Burgui, Rosana; Delfrade Osinaga, J.; Floristan, Y.; Montesino Semper, Manuel F.; Ardanaz, Eva; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Estadística e Investigación Operativa
Fundamento. A nivel mundial, el cáncer de próstata es uno de los tumores malignos más comúnmente diagnosticados en los hombres. En este estudio, se analizan las tendencias de la incidencia y mortalidad de cáncer de próstata, global y por grupos de edad, para mostrar la situación epidemiológica pasada y actual de la enfermedad en Navarra (España). Método. Para el estudio se utilizaron los casos incidentes diagnosticados entre 1975 y 2010, y las muertes observadas entre 1975 y 2013. Los datos fueron proporcionados por el Registro de Cáncer de Navarra y el Instituto Nacional de Estadística respectivamente. Se calcularon las tasas de incidencia y mortalidad estandarizadas por edad, los puntos de cambio y el porcentaje de cambio anual (PCA) mediante modelos de regresión de joinpoint. Se usaron modelos unidimensionales de P-splines para estimar proyecciones hasta 2016. Resultados. Se observó un considerable incremento en las tasas de incidencia de cáncer de próstata en hombres de 45-74 años, con PCA de +4,5% (p<0,001), +9,5% (p<0,001) y +2,4% (p<0,05) en los periodos 1975-1990, 1990-2000 y 2000- 2010, respectivamente. En el grupo de mayores de 74 se registró un aumento de incidencia en el período 1975-1999 (PCA +3,3%, p<0,001), seguido de una disminución significativa hasta 2010 (PCA -4,0%, p<0,01). Las tasas de mortalidad aumentaron hasta 1995 (PCA +2,2%, p<0,001), mientras que descendieron en el periodo 1995-2013 (PCA -3.4%, p<0,001). Conclusión. Aunque las tasas globales de incidencia de cáncer de próstata parecen estabilizarse en 2002-2010 en Navarra, las tendencias fueron diferentes según los grupos de edad, aumentando en los hombres de 45-74 años y disminuyendo en el grupo de mayores de 74 años. Se observó una disminución en las tasas de mortalidad en ambos grupos de edad desde 1995. Cambios en el uso del antígeno prostático específico para cribado en los próximos años podrían afectar las futuras tendencias del cáncer de próstata. Palabras clave. Cáncer de Próstata. Incidencia. Mortalidad. Estimaciones. Tendencias
Open Access
Small area estimation of gender-based violence: rape incidence risks in Uttar Pradesh, India
(Society of Statistics, Computer and Applications, 2018) Vicente Fuenzalida, Gonzalo; Goicoa Mangado, Tomás; Puranik, A; Ugarte Martínez, María Dolores; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Estadística e Investigación Operativa
Violence against women is considered an endemic problem in communities and countries around the world, and it has been declared an issue of epidemic proportions by the World Health Organization (WHO). In India, where the patriarchal nature of the country contributes to increasing violence against women, there has been a dramatic increase of this gender-based violence in the past decades. In this paper we focus on analyzing rape incidence risks in the most populous state of India. In particular, small area models including spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal components are used to estimate rape incidence risks in the districts of Uttar Pradesh during the period 2001-2014. We discover interesting spatio-temporal patterns of rape incidence as well as point out districts with significant high risks.
Open Access
Adherence to the Mediterranean diet reduces mortality in the Spanish cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC-Spain)
(Cambridge University Press, 2011) Buckland, Genevieve; Agudo, Antonio; Travier, Noemie; Huerta, José María; Cirera, Lluís; Tormo, María José; Navarro, Carmen; Chirlaque, María Dolores; Moreno Iribas, Conchi; Ardanaz, Eva; Barricarte Gurrea, Aurelio; Etxeberria Andueza, Jaione; Marín, Pilar; Quirós, J. Ramón; Redondo, María Luisa; Larrañaga, Nerea; Amiano, Pilar; Dorronsoro, Miren; Arriola, Larraitz; Basterretxea, Mikel; Sánchez, María José; Molina, Esther; González, Carlos A.; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua
Epidemiological studies show that adherence to a Mediterranean diet (MD) increases longevity; however, few studies are restricted to Mediterranean populations or explore the effect of a MD pattern that directly incorporates olive oil. Therefore the relationship between adherence to the MD and mortality was studied within the the Spanish cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC-Spain). The EPIC-Spain analysis included 40 622 participants (37·7% males) aged 29–69 years who were recruited from five Spanish regions in 1992–1996. During a mean follow-up of 13·4 years, 1855 deaths were documented: 913 from cancer, 399 from CVD, 425 from other causes and 118 from unknown causes of death. Risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality was assessed according to the level of adherence to a relative MD (rMED) score, measured using an 18-unit scale incorporating nine selected dietary components. A high compared with a low rMED score was associated with a significant reduction in mortality from all causes (hazard ratio (HR) 0·79; 95% CI 0·69, 0·91), from CVD (HR 0·66; 95% CI 0·49, 0·89), but not from overall cancer (HR 0·92; 95% CI 0·75, 1·12). A 2-unit increase in rMED score was associated with a 6% (P,0·001) decreased risk of all-cause mortality. A high olive oil intake and moderate alcohol consumption contributed most to this association. In this Spanish cohort, following an olive oil-rich MD was related to a significant reduction in all-cause mortality, and reduced the risk of mortality from CVD. These results support the important role that the MD pattern has on reducing mortality in Mediterranean countries.