Shirin Anil
University of Wollongong, Australia
Title: Identification of dietary patterns associated with blood pressure in a sample of overweight Australian adults
Biography
Biography: Shirin Anil
Abstract
The DASH diet provides strong evidence for an optimal dietary pattern (DP) for blood pressure (BP) control; however investigation at the level of key foods in a DP is sparse. This study aimed to assess the relationship between DP driven by key foods with BP in a sample of obese Australian adults. Secondary analysis was conducted on baseline data of 118 participants recruited to a 12 month RCT that studied the effect of fish and long chain omega-3 fatty acids on weight reduction. Dietary assessment was by a validated diet history interview. The average of three office BP measurements was taken. Factor analysis extracted DPs and their relation to systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was analysed using multiple linear regression. Eight DPs were identified: meat & alcohol, seafood, fats, fruits & nuts, legumes, confectionery, sweet foods, and yeast spread & salt. A decrease in SBP was associated with adherence to the fruit & nuts pattern (β = -4.1 (95% CI -7.5 to -0.7) mm Hg) and with seafood for DBP (β= -2.4 (-4.6 to -0.3) mm Hg). SBP and DBP increased with yeast spread & salt (β= 4.3 (1.4 – 7.3); 2.5 (0.9 – 4.0) mm Hg, respectively). In obese adults attending for weight loss, DPs that included larger amounts of fruits & nuts and/or seafood were associated with lower BP at baseline, while patterns that were characterised by yeast spread & salt were associated with higher BP.