Associations between dietary patterns and blood pressure in a sample of Australian adults

• Published in: Nutrition journal 2020-01, Vol.19 (1), p.5-5, Article 5
• Main Authors: Margerison, Claire, Riddell, Lynnette J, McNaughton, Sarah A, Nowson, Caryl A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 24-h recall; Adult; Adults; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Antihypertensives; Australia - epidemiology; Australians; Automation; Beverages; Blood Pressure; Body mass index; Bread; Chronic diseases; Chronic illnesses; Consumer research; Diet; Diet - adverse effects; Diet - methods; Diet therapy; Dietary intake; Dietary patterns; Diseases; Energy intake; Exercise; Factor analysis; Female; Food and nutrition; Food habits; Health; Health risks; Humans; Hypertension; Hypertension - epidemiology; Intervention; Male; Meat; Middle Aged; Milk; Noodles; Nutrients; Nutrition; Nuts (Food); Pasta; Pasta products; Physical activity; Potassium; Recipes; Sodium; Vegetables
• ISSN: 1475-2891; 1475-2891
• DOI: 10.1186/s12937-019-0519-2

Investigating effects of whole diets on blood pressure (BP) can contribute to development of diet-based recommendations for health. Our aim was to assess the relationship between dietary patterns and BP in a sample of free-living Australian adults. Usual dietary patterns of participants recruited to dietary intervention studies were assessed using factor analysis (two 24-h recalls). The mean of seven days of daily, seated BP measurements were used. Complete data from 251 participants (112 males; mean age 55.1(9.1) (SD) years; body mass index (BMI) 29.5(3.9) kg/m ) was included. Three dietary patterns were identified. Only Dietary Pattern 2 was positively associated with home systolic BP (β = 1.88, 95% CI 0.16, 3.60) after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, anti-hypertensive medication, smoking, education, physical activity and energy intake. This dietary pattern was characterised by high consumption of low-fibre bread, pasta, noodles and rice, meat dishes, poultry dishes and egg dishes, mixed cereal dishes, salted nuts and low consumption of milk and yoghurt (low-fat), vegetable juice, vegetables and high-fibre bread. Dietary Pattern 2 was also positively associated with intakes of energy (P = 0.002) and sodium (P = 0.005) and inversely associated with potassium intake (P = 0.002). After adjustment for energy, only the inverse association with potassium remained (P