First published: 01 April 2015
Nicholas Jones, Sumantra Ray, Pablo Monsivais
Abstract
The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan lowers risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and reduces weight gain. Little is known about the extent to which United Kingdom (UK) diets are DASH adherent or whether the level of DASH adherence is associated with CVD risk scores or obesity.
We used nationally‐representative cross‐sectional data for 2008‐12 from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey. Diet was assessed by four‐day food diary and adherence to DASH was assessed based on eight diet components characteristic of this pattern. Population‐level CVD risk was determined using the 1991 Framingham score, based on nurse‐elicited data. We characterised DASH adherence by sociodemographic factors and used survey‐weighted logistic regression to test for associations between DASH adherence and CVD risk and obesity.
DASH adherence was greater among women, older people, and people of higher socioeconomic status. We also found a significant association between DASH adherence and CVD risk and obesity. Relative to the lowest quintile of DASH adherence, the most DASH‐adherent quintile had lower odds of being in a high CVD risk group (OR 0.26, 95CI 0.09‐0.78) (see figure) and obesity defined by waist circumference (OR 0.31, 95CI 0.18‐0.52) or body mass index (OR 0.34, 95CI 0.20‐0.60).
The application of DASH to a UK sample shows pronounced sociodemographic differences and significant inverse associations with CVD risk and obesity. The observed heterogeneity in DASH adherence and the association between DASH adherence and health outcomes suggests that there may be a role for DASH in UK public health nutrition research and policy interventions.
