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A Western dietary pattern is associated with higher blood pressure in Iranian adolescents

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Abstract

Purpose

The dietary determinants of adolescent blood pressure (BP) are not well understood. We determined the association between major dietary patterns and BP in a sample of Iranian adolescents.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted among a representative sample (n = 557) of Shirazi adolescents aged 12–19 years. Participants’ systolic and diastolic BP was measured using a validated oscillometric BP monitor. Usual dietary intakes during the past 12 months were assessed using a valid and reproducible 168-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire through face-to-face interviews. Principal component factor analysis was used to identify major dietary patterns based on a set of 25 predefined food groups.

Results

Overall, three major dietary patterns were identified, among which only the Western pattern (abundant in soft drinks, sweets and desserts, salt, mayonnaise, tea and coffee, salty snacks, high-fat dairy products, French fries, and red or processed meats) had a significant association with BP. After adjusting for potential confounders in the analysis of covariance models, multivariable adjusted means of the systolic and mean BP of subjects in the highest tertile of the Western pattern score were significantly higher than those in the lowest tertile (for systolic BP: mean difference 6.9 mmHg, P = 0.001; and for mean BP: mean difference 4.2 mmHg, P = 0.003). A similar but statistically insignificant difference was observed in terms of diastolic BP.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that a Western dietary pattern is associated with higher BP in Iranian adolescents. However, additional large-scale prospective studies with adequate methodological quality are required to confirm these findings.

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Acknowledgments

The present work was financially supported by the Research Center for Health Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. The authors would like to thank the participants for their enthusiastic and kind cooperation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nutrition and Food Sciences Research Center, School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Abdollah Hojhabrimanesh & Masoumeh Akhlaghi

  2. Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Research Center for Health Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Masoumeh Akhlaghi, Elham Rahmani, Sasan Amanat, Masoumeh Atefi, Maryam Najafi, Maral Hashemzadeh, Saedeh Salehi & Shiva Faghih

  3. Research Center for Health Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Shiva Faghih

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  1. Abdollah Hojhabrimanesh
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  2. Masoumeh Akhlaghi
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Correspondence to Shiva Faghih.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The Ethics Board of the Research Center for Health Sciences of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences reviewed and approved the study protocol (Reference Number: 92-01-42-5880), and written informed consents were obtained from participants prior to their inclusion in the study. All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and all subsequent revisions [29].

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Hojhabrimanesh, A., Akhlaghi, M., Rahmani, E. et al. A Western dietary pattern is associated with higher blood pressure in Iranian adolescents. Eur J Nutr 56, 399–408 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-015-1090-z

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