Higher Diet Quality is Associated with Lower Odds of Inflammation and Peripheral Artery Disease in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos

Introduction: C-reactive protein (CRP; a marker of inflammation) and the ankle-brachial index (ABI; a marker of peripheral artery disease (PAD)) are considered emerging risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in addition to traditional cardiometabolic markers. Results on the association of a healthy diet and these emerging risk factors have been inconsistent, and few studies have been conducted on Hispanics/Latinos, who present high prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that higher diet quality as measured with the Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI; range 0-110: lowest to highest quality) would be associated with lower odds of having high-risk levels of CRP and of ABI, independently from cardiometabolic risk factors. Methods: Baseline data were analyzed from US-Hispanics/Latinos aged 18-74y without previously-diagnosed CVD participating in the population-based Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos cohort. There were 14,623 participants with complete CRP data, and 7,892 with ABI data (measured only for those aged ≥45y). Food and nutrients components of AHEI were assessed from two 24-hour recalls. High-risk CRP was defined as >3.0 mg/L, and high-risk ABI was defined as <0.90 or >1.40, with further categorization into PAD (<0.90) and arterial stiffness (>1.40). Results: Nearly 35% of Hispanics/Latinos had high-risk CRP levels and 6.3% had high-risk ABI (4.2% had PAD and 2.1% had arterial stiffness). After adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors, as well as cardiometabolic risk factors (diabetes, hypertension, obesity, or dyslipidemia), the odds (95% confidence interval) of having high-risk ABI were 36% (5, 43%) lower for each 10-unit increase in AHEI (p=0.020). The association remained significant for PAD alone, albeit attenuated (p=0.046), but not for arterial stiffness (p=0.210). Each 10-unit increase in AHEI was associated with 21% (10, 31%) lower odds of high-risk CRP(p=0.0003) after similar adjustments. There were no significant interactions between AHEI and sex, background, smoking, or cardiometabolic risk factors for the associations with ABI. The association of AHEI with high-risk CRP was stronger for those with diabetes (0.68 (0.52, 0.89) vs. 0.82 (0.71, 0.94) without diabetes; p-interaction=0.0002) and with obesity (0.70 (0.58, 0.85) vs. 0.86 (0.73, 1.01) without obesity; p-interaction=0.0001). Conclusions: A higher diet quality is associated with lower inflammation and PAD among Hispanics/Latinos, independently from traditional cardiometabolic risk factors. Promoting a healthy overall diet may benefit with further lowering CVD-risk related to emerging factors in a population that already presents high prevalence of cardiometabolic markers.