Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and cardio-metabolic risk in postmenopausal women by body composition

To evaluate whether cardio-metabolic risk data in obese postmenopausal women are affected by adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet).

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 89 pre-obese and obese postmenopausal women (PMW) aged 40-75 years with a Body Mass Index (BMI) value ≥25 kg/m2. Demographic characteristics, health status, anthropometric measurements, physical activity status, nutritional habits, lipid profile, some biochemical results and cardiovascular risk predictor (CVRP) data were collected by face-to-face interviews.

In this study, a negative correlation was found between CVRP and a Mediterranean diet score (MEDI-LITE) scores in pre-obese and obese PMW (p=0.008, p=0.02, respectively). Total cholesterol levels of the obese women were found to be negatively correlated with MEDI-LITE scores (p=0.002). VLDL-cholesterol (p=0.04, p=0.008, respectively) and triglyceride levels (p=0.002, p=0.003, respectively) of the pre-obese and obese women were negatively correlated with MEDI-LITE scores. According to the logistic regression analysis, the variables affecting CVRP negatively in our study were age, smoking, and salt use, while the variables affecting CVRP positively were MEDI-LITE score and omega-3 fatty acid consumption.

In this study, it was observed that the increase in the MedDiet adherence score of the pre-obese and obese women in the postmenopausal period had favourable effect on lipid profile and CVRP. It is considered that adhering to the MedDiet in pre-obese and obese PMW can be recommended as an effective strategy to prevent the increased risk of cardiovascular disease due to advanced age, menopause, and high BMI values.