The association between diet quality index-international and inflammatory markers in Iranian overweight and obese women

Farideh Shiraseb; Sara Ebrahimi; Sahar Noori; Reza Bagheri; Stacey Alvarez-Alvarado; Alexei Wong; Khadijeh Mirzaei

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1164281

The association between diet quality index-international and inflammatory markers in Iranian overweight and obese women

Front Nutr. 2023 May 19:10:1164281. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1164281. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Farideh Shiraseb¹, Sara Ebrahimi², Sahar Noori³, Reza Bagheri⁴, Stacey Alvarez-Alvarado⁵, Alexei Wong⁶, Khadijeh Mirzaei^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran.
² The Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Clayton, VIC, Australia.
³ Department of Nutrition, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Department of Exercise Physiology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
⁵ Department of Neurology, College of Medicine- Jacksonville, University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL, United States.
⁶ Department of Health and Human Performance, Marymount University, Arlington, VA, United States.
⁷ Food Microbiology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Objectives: The present study was conducted to evaluate whether there is a link between the diet quality index (DQI) and markers of systemic inflammation in Iranian overweight and obese women.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 200 Iranian overweight and obese women aged 18-48 years. The DQI-international (DQI-I) comprises four main components: variety, adequacy, moderation, and overall balance. Blood samples were collected in a fasted state to measure inflammatory markers.

Results: After adjusting for age, body mass index (BMI), physical activity, total energy intake, economic status, education, supplement intake, age of starting obesity, and history of body mass loss, a marginally significant negative association was observed between the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and the DQI-I (β: -0.015, 95% CI: -0.03, 0.000; p = 0.061). The results after adjustment showed that DQI-I has a negative association with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) concentrations (β: -0.031, 95% CI: -0.104, -0.031; p = 0.023). Furthermore, negative associations were observed between the adequacy component and levels of HOMA-IR (β: -0.025, 95% CI: -0.100, 0.047, p = 0.050) and hs-CRP (β: -0.615, 95% CI: -1.191, -0.020; p = 0.045). In addition, negative associations were found between transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and balance score (β: -6.270, 95% CI: -39.211, -3.661, p = 0.020), as well as HOMA-IR (β: -0.080, 95% CI: -0.202, -0.000, p = 0.041) and chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) (β: -0.562, 95% CI: -11.414, -0.282, p = 0.021), with the various component. A marginally significant negative association between galectin 3 (Gal-3) and moderation score (β: -0.451, 95% CI: -1.171, 0.060, p = 0.060) was found. In addition, a marginally significant inverse association was also established between hs-CRP and variety score (β: -0.311, 95% CI: -0.970, 0.001, p = 0.052). The Receiver Operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis demonstrated that DQI-I might better predict HOMA-IR with a cut point of 3.13 (AUC = 0.698, 0.511-0.699, p = 0.050).

Conclusion: These findings showed that a higher adherence to diet quality and its components could probably be related to lowering the inflammatory markers considerably in overweight and obese women.

Keywords: diet quality index-international (DQI-I); inflammatory markers; obese; overweight; women.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Grants from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Grant ID: 9711468006).