Association between dietary flavonoid intake and hypertension among U.S. adults

Front Immunol. 2024 Apr 3:15:1380493. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1380493. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Background: Hypertension is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Dietary flavonoids have been reported to reduce inflammation, protect against oxidative stress, protect the vascular endothelium, and improve vascular health. However, the relationship between dietary flavonoid intake and the prevalence of hypertension remains controversial.

Methods: This study included 8010 adults from the 2007-2010 and 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). The relationship between dietary flavonoid intake and the prevalence of hypertension was explored by weighted logistic regression and weighted restricted cubic spline.

Results: We found an inverse relationship between total anthocyanin intake and the prevalence of hypertension in the fourth quartile compared with the first quartile [0.81(0.66,0.99), p = 0.04]. Moreover, the prevalence of hypertension tended to decrease with increasing total anthocyanin intake in participants over 60 years of age. In addition, we found a U-shaped relationship between the prevalence of hypertension and total flavan-3-ol intake. Total flavan-3-ol intake was inversely associated with hypertension prevalence in the third quartile compared with the first quartile [0.79 (0.63,0.99), p = 0.04]. Moreover, there was a significant negative association between the prevalence of hypertension and total flavan-3-ol intake when total flavan-3-ol intake was below 48.26 mg/day.

Conclusion: Our study found a negative association between the prevalence of hypertension and moderate total anthocyanins intake and total flavan-3-ols intake. Our study provides evidence from a population-based study for a negative association between dietary flavonoid intake and the prevalence of hypertension.

Keywords: NHANES; anthocyanin; flavan-3-ol; flavonoid; hypertension.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Anthocyanins / administration & dosage
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Diet*
  • Female
  • Flavonoids* / administration & dosage
  • Humans
  • Hypertension* / epidemiology
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Nutrition Surveys*
  • Prevalence
  • Risk Factors
  • United States / epidemiology

Substances

  • Flavonoids
  • Anthocyanins

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82230125), National natural science foundation of China (No. 82104677), Scientific and Technological Innovation Project of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CI2021B004), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central public welfare research institutes (ZZ15-YQ-009).