Introduction:
Diet is a complex exposure of unquestionable relevance for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. South Korea, a population with traditionally low rates of CVD, has changed in recent decades from a traditional diet to more Western and modern dietary patterns. The impact of these changes are uncertain.
Hypothesis:
We aimed to evaluate the hypothesis that non-traditional dietary patterns were associated with an increased prevalence of hypertension in a large sample of young and middle-aged Korean adults.
Methods:
We conducted a cross sectional study of 220,979 adult men and women who underwent a screening health examination between January 2011 and December 2013 at the Kangbuk Samsung Total Healthcare Center in Seoul and Suwon, South Korea who did not have any history of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, or dyslipidemia. Diet was assessed using a validated 103-item food frequency questionnaire and principal component analysis was used to derive three major dietary patterns: Western Korean, characterized by higher intakes of noodles, red meat, processed meat, raw or salted fish, shellfish, poultry, soda, and alcohol; Traditional Korean, characterized by higher intakes of vegetables, mushrooms, preserved vegetables, soya and other beans, fruits, fish, and seaweed; and Modern Korean, characterized by higher intakes of bread and cereals, milk and dairy products, snacks, and pizza, and lower intakes of alcohol, rice, and preserved vegetables. Hypertension was defined as having a systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg and/or a diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg. Systolic hypertension was defined as having a systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg.
Results:
The prevalence of hypertension was 2.9%. In fully adjusted multivariable models, the odds ratios for hypertension comparing the 90th to the 10th percentile of dietary scores were 1.58 (95%CI 1.42, 1.75), 1.11 (95%CI 1.01, 1.21), 0.73 (95%CI 0.66, 0.81) for Western, Traditional, and Modern Korean dietary patterns, respectively. The corresponding odds ratios for systolic hypertension were 1.50 (95%CI 1.28, 1.76), 1.17 (95%CI 1.01, 1.36), and 0.68 (95%CI 0.58, 0.79), respectively.
Conclusion:
In this large cross-sectional study of young and middle-aged Korean men and women, diet transition to a more Western pattern, characterized by higher intake of meats and alcohol, was associated with a higher prevalence of hypertension and may be associated with increased CVD risk.
Associations between dietary patterns and gene expression profiles of healthy men and women: a cross-sectional study
