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Greater adherence to the dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) dietary pattern is associated with lower blood pressure in healthy Iranian primary school children

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Abstract

Purpose

The dietary determinants of children blood pressure (BP) are poorly understood. We examined the association between adherence to the dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) dietary pattern and BP in healthy Iranian primary school children.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted among a representative sample (n = 407) of healthy Shirazi students aged 6–12 years. Subjects’ systolic and diastolic BP were measured by a validated oscillometric BP monitor. Usual dietary intakes over the past 12 months were assessed using a valid and reproducible 168-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire via face-to-face interviews. A DASH score was calculated for each subject based on his/her energy-adjusted intakes of 8 major dietary components emphasized or minimized in the DASH dietary pattern. The higher the DASH score of a subject, the more his/her adherence to the DASH dietary pattern.

Results

After controlling for several potential confounders in the analysis of covariance models, multivariable-adjusted means of systolic and mean BP of subjects in the highest tertile of DASH score were significantly lower than those in the lowest tertile (for systolic BP: mean difference −6.2 mmHg, P = 0.010; and for mean BP: mean difference −5.4 mmHg, P = 0.013). Furthermore, a similar but statistically insignificant difference was found in terms of multivariable-adjusted means of diastolic BP (mean difference −3.9 mmHg, P = 0.146).

Conclusions

The findings suggest that greater adherence to the DASH dietary pattern is associated with lower BP in healthy Iranian primary school children. However, future prospective studies of adequate methodological quality are warranted to confirm these findings.

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Acknowledgements

The present study was financially supported by the Research Center for Health Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran (Grant Number: 92-01-42-5999). The authors wish to thank the participants for their enthusiastic cooperation.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Aida Najafi

  2. Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Aida Najafi, Shiva Faghih, Abdollah Hojhabrimanesh, Maryam Najafi, Hadith Tangestani, Masoumeh Atefi, Maryam Teymouri, Mahour Salehi, Majid Kamali & Sasan Amanat

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

    Masoumeh Akhlaghi

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  1. Aida Najafi
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  2. Shiva Faghih
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Correspondence to Masoumeh Akhlaghi.

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

Ethical standards

The ethics board of the Research Center for Health Sciences of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences approved the study protocol (Reference number: 92-01-42-5999), and written informed consents were obtained from subjects’ legal guardians prior to inclusion of their child in the study. All procedures followed in the present study 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 [23].

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Najafi, A., Faghih, S., Hojhabrimanesh, A. et al. Greater adherence to the dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) dietary pattern is associated with lower blood pressure in healthy Iranian primary school children. Eur J Nutr 57, 1449–1458 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-017-1423-1

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