Objective: To investigate the relationship between dietary patterns and hypertension in Hanzhong city of Shanxi province.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey on dietary pattern and hypertension together with a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire was conducted among rural residents aged from 18 to 80 in Hanzhong of Shanxi province in 2010. Factor analysis by SPSS was used to identify food patterns based on the frequency of food. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between dietary patterns and hypertension.
Results: 2929 rural residents were investigated with an average age as 50.0 years old and average schooling-years as 6.8. The prevalence rate of hypertension was 34.3%, with 35.4% in males and 33.7% in females. Among 29 kinds of food under investigation, only 11 kinds with the frequencies of consumption more than 1 time per week. Four main factors were derived as four dietary patterns by factor analysis and they were diversity dietary pattern, alcohol dietary pattern, beverage dietary pattern and simple dietary pattern. Among them, the balanced dietary pattern was significantly associated with hypertension. All the participants were categorized into 4 groups (Q1-Q4) according to their factor scores, quartile with Q1 as a reference. The residents who were more closer to having balance dietary pattern, were under less risk of suffering from hypertension after controlling for age, sex, BMI, education and income. Compared to Q1, the Q4 had lower risk of hypertension (OR = 0.59, 95%CI: 0.44 - 0.77) for the balanced pattern.
Conclusion: Dietary pattern could be related to the prevalence of hypertension. A rational diet with diversity of foods should be suggested as one of the major measures for the prevention of hypertension.