Background: The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Index (DGAI) was created to assess adherence to the dietary recommendations of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) in relation to chronic disease risk.
Objective: The objective was to assess the relation between dietary patterns consistent with the 2005 DGA as measured by the DGAI and both the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and individual MetS risk factors.
Design: DGAI scores and metabolic risk factors for MetS were assessed in a cross-sectional study of 3177 participants from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort. MetS was defined on the basis of the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria.
Results: After adjustment for potential confounders, the DGAI score was inversely related to waist circumference (P for trend < 0.001), triacylglycerol concentration (P for trend = 0.005), both diastolic (P for trend = 0.002) and systolic (P for trend = 0.01) blood pressure, the prevalence of abdominal adiposity (P for trend < 0.001), and hyperglycemia (P for trend = 0.03). The prevalence of MetS was significantly lower in individuals in the highest DGAI quintile category than in those in the lowest category (odds ratio: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.47, 0.88; P for trend = 0.005) when those being treated for any of the risk factors were excluded. There was a significant interaction between DGAI score and age; the association between the DGAI score and MetS was confined largely to adults younger than 55 y (odds ratio: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.36, 0.92; P for trend < 0.01).
Conclusions: A dietary pattern consistent with the 2005 DGA was associated with a lower prevalence of MetS-a potential risk factor for CVD.