Few studies have made distinctions between dietary intake from meals and snacks in relating them to biomarkers. We aimed to examine if snack patterns are associated with biomarkers of glucose metabolism, specifically hemoglobin A1c and HOMA-IR in US adults. Using 24-h dietary recall data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in 2007-2008, we derived snack patterns using factor analyses. Multivariate logistic regressions were performed to estimate adjusted odds ratios (AOR) for biomarkers of glucose metabolism by quintiles of snack pattern scores. Men in the highest quintile of dairy and sugary snack pattern had higher risk of having hemoglobin A1c ≥ 6.5% (AOR: 2.06; 95% CI: 1.20-3.51) and HOMA-IR > 3.0 (AOR: 1.73; 95% CI: 1.01-2.95) than did those in the lowest quintile. No significant association was found in women between snack patterns and biomarkers of glucose metabolism. Dairy and sugary snack patterns of US men had the greatest association with poor control of glucose metabolism.
Keywords: Glucose metabolism; HOMA-IR; hemoglobin A1c; snack patterns; snacking.