PP225 - THE ADHERENCE TO THE NORDIC DIET IS ASSOCIATED WITH LOWER VISCERAL OBESITY AND LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS.

PP225

THE ADHERENCE TO THE NORDIC DIET IS ASSOCIATED WITH LOWER VISCERAL OBESITY AND LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS.

I. Birka^1,2,*, M. Leja¹, I. Polaka¹, S. Parsutins¹, I. Kojalo¹, D. Razuka-Ebela¹, D. Santare¹

¹Institute of Clinical and Preventive Medicine, ²Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia

Rationale: The Nordic diet (ND) has been proposed as an alternative to the Mediterranean diet in Nordic countries. It has been shown to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and improve cardiovascular risk factors. 

The study aimed to evaluate the associations between the ND score and body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR), sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SYS BP, DIA BP).

Methods: 1676 participants (40-64 years) were selected from the GISTAR study conducted in two towns in Latvia from 2019 to 2021 ¹. The ND score (0-10) was calculated from the self-reported food-frequency questionnaire as described by Bjørnara et al ². Logistic regression analysis, Mann-Whitney test, and χ2 test were performed using IBM SPSS 29.0.2.

Results: Females (n=1106; 65.93%; median 5 (IQR 4-6)) showed higher adherence to the ND than males (n=571; 34.07%; median 3 (IQR 2-4)) (p<0.001). The ND score was negatively associated with WHR (p<0.001) and SAD (p=0.003) in the total study group, but not separately in males and females. The ND score and BMI did not show an association, either overall or in groups by sex. The ND score was associated with lower SYS BP (p=0.003) and DIA BP (p<0.001) in the total group, but not in females and males separately.  The factors associated with higher ND score values were age (p=0.03) for males and age (p<0.001) and higher education (p=0.026) for females.

Conclusion: Adherence to the ND is higher in females, older and better-educated participants. The ND is associated with lower visceral obesity and lower SYS and DIA BP values.

References: 1. Leja M, et al. Multicentric randomised study of Helicobacter pylori eradication and pepsinogen testing for prevention of gastric cancer mortality: the GISTAR study. BMJ Open 2017. 2. Bjørnarå HB, et al. An assessment of the test-retest reliability of the New Nordic Diet score. Food Nutr Res. 2015 Aug 11;59:28397.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared