Association between dietary patterns and carotid intima-media thickness: cross-sectional analysis of ELSA-Brasil study

Purpose We aimed to perform a cross-sectional evaluation of the association between dietary patterns and carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), using baseline data from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health. Methods The participants with measurement of the cIMT were included ( n = 9,624). cIMT was evaluated in a continuous way and categorized as < 75th and ≥ 75th and ≤ 0.9 mm and > 0.9 mm. Dietary patterns (DPs) were identified by principal component factor analysis. Linear and logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between cIMT and DPs. Results Three DPs were derived. For each unit increase in the convenience DP score, the odds for cIMT ≥ 75th increased by 13% (OR 1.13; 95% CI 1.05: 1.22) and for cIMT > 0.9 mm increased by 14% (OR 1.14; 95% CI 1.07: 1.22) in the fully adjusted model. In contrast, each unit increase in the prudent DP score decreased by 8% the odds of having cIMT ≥ 75th (OR 0.92; 95% CI 0.86: 0.98) and by 11% of cIMT > 0.9 mm (OR 0.89; 95% CI 0.84: 0.95). Furthermore, each increase in the convenience DP score was associated with increase in the cIMT (β 0.01; 95% CI 0.01: 0.02), while each increase in the prudent DP score was associated with decrease in the cIMT (β –0.01; –0.01; –0.01) in linear regression models. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that those individuals with adherence to the convenience dietary pattern are more likely to have high cIMT, while those with adherence to a prudent dietary pattern have lower odds for this characteristic.