Association of dietary pattern with hypertension prevalence among residents in northern China

Objective To explore the correlation between the dietary pattern and hypertension prevalence among citizens in northern China.Methods We conducted face-to-face interviews and physical examinations among 12 865 residents aged 20-74 years selected from 42 communities of Harbin city in northern China with multistage stratified random cluster sampling between 2010 to 2012.Questionnaires on demography,life style,health condition,and food frequency were used in the survey.Principle component analysis was adopted to identify dietary patterns and logistic regression was applied to estimate the association of dietary patterns with the prevalence of hypertension.Results Among 8 591 participants with valid information,the prevalence of hypertension was 39.4%,with a higher prevalence rate in the males than in the females (47.4% vs.35.0%).Five dietary patterns (staple,plant,balanced,legume,and animal-based dietary pattern) were identified with factor analysis.Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that having balanced diet was a protective factor against hypertension,with the odds ratio (OR) of 0.86 (95% confidence intervalCI:0.81-0.92)(P<0.0001); whereas,compared to low salt intake,high salt intake could increase hypertension risk (OR=1.62,95%CI:1.29-2.04; P<0.0001) after adjusting for age,gender,education,body mass index (BMI),smoking,alcohol drinking,physical exercise,family history of hypertension,and total energy intake; and having greasy food was also a risk factor for hypertension,with the OR of 1.10 (95%CI:1.01-1.43; P=0.004) in comparison with having light food.Conclusion High salt intake,having greasy food,and with unbalanced dietary pattern could increase hypertension risk among adult residents in northern China,suggesting that healthy dietary pattern needs to be promoted among the population for hypertension prevention.