Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Profile Among Australian Vegetarian and Nonvegetarian Teenagers

Ross Grant; Roman Pawlak; Paul Vos; Ayse A Bilgin; Jade Berg; Robyn Pearce; Margaret Morris

doi:10.1177/1559827619829000

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Profile Among Australian Vegetarian and Nonvegetarian Teenagers

Am J Lifestyle Med. 2019 Feb 15;15(3):313-321. doi: 10.1177/1559827619829000. eCollection 2021 May-Jun.

Authors

Ross Grant^{1

2

3

4

5

6}, Roman Pawlak^{1

2

3

4

5

6}, Paul Vos^{1

2

3

4

5

6}, Ayse A Bilgin^{1

2

3

4

5

6}, Jade Berg^{1

2

3

4

5

6}, Robyn Pearce^{1

2

3

4

5

6}, Margaret Morris^{1

2

3

4

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ School of Medical Sciences, UNSW, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (RG).
² East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina (R Pawlak, PV).
³ Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia (AAB).
⁴ Australasian Research Institute, Sydney Adventist Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (JB).
⁵ Lifestyle Research Centre, Avondale College of Higher Education, New South Wales, Australia (R Pearce).
⁶ School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (MM).

Abstract

Atherosclerosis develops over a long period of time and often begins in childhood. The goal of this study was to make a cross-sectional assessment of the pattern of cardiovascular disease risk factors among Australian vegetarian (n = 49) and nonvegetarian (n = 639) 14- to 17-year-old participants from New South Wales, Australia. Vegetarians had statistically significant lower mean total (4.05 vs 4.4 mmol/L;P < .001) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (2.18 vs 2.55 mmol/L; P < .001) and lower incidence of abnormal total and LDL cholesterol (31.1% vs 46.2%, P = .036, having total cholesterol ≥4.4 mmol/L and 13.3% vs 29.6%, P = .021, having LDL cholesterol ≥2.84 mmol/L). Vegetarians had a higher diastolic BP (72.0 vs 69.7 mm Hg; P = .038). No statistically significant difference was found in other risk factors including high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P = .83), triglycerides (P = .601), systolic blood pressure (P = .727), body mass index (P = .159), plasma glucose (P = .09), C-reactive protein (P = .527), or homocysteine (P = .45). The prevalence rate with 3 or more risk factors was 12.2% among vegetarians and 13.9% among nonvegetarians (P = .156). The high percentage of abnormal total cholesterol in both diet groups and, in addition, LDL cholesterol in nonvegetarians is a cause of concern and underlines the need for lifestyle change.

Keywords: adolescents; cardiovascular disease; risk factors; vegetarians.