Dietary patterns, dietary lead exposure and hypertension in the older Chinese population

With rapid population ageing and an increasing rate of hypertension in China, this study aims to examine the association between dietary patterns, dietary lead and hypertension among older Chinese population.

We analysed the 2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey data (2,634 individuals with dietary and hypertension measurement data, aged ≥60 years). Dietary data were obtained using 24 hour-recall over three consecutive days. Dietary lead intake is based on a published systematic review of food lead concentration and dietary lead exposure in China. Factor analysis was used to identify dietary patterns. Poisson regression and multinomial logistic regression models were used to explore the association between dietary patterns and hypertension.

The prevalence of hypertension was 47.0% in men and 48.9% in women. Traditional dietary pattern (high intake of rice, pork and vegetables) was significantly inversely associated with known hypertension. In the fully adjusted model, compared with the lowest quartile of traditional dietary pattern, the highest quartile had a lower risk of known hypertension, with Relative Risk Ratio=0.69 (95% CI: 0.50; 0.95). However, associations between modern dietary pattern and hypertension differed by urbanization; an inverse, positive and null association was seen in low, medium and high urbanization. Additionally, dietary lead showed a significant positive association with hypertension and known hypertension.

Policies that facilitate and promote healthy diets, and the availability of healthy foods particularly at the regional and local levels, are important for the prevention of hypertension.