Dietary Inflammatory Potential and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in School-Aged Adolescents

The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) and its version adapted for children (C-DII) have emerged as promising tools to estimate the inflammatory potential of the diet and to enhance the understanding of the relationship between subclinical chronic inflammation and cardiometabolic risk during adolescence.

To investigate the associations of DII and C-DII with cardiometabolic risk indicators in adolescent students.

This cross-sectional study was conducted with 552 adolescents aged 10-17 years (66% girls; mean age: 13.6 ± 1.7 years). DII scores ranged from -1.34 to 5.04 (median: 2.62) and C-DII scores ranged from -1.99 to 4.39 (median: 1.96) and were categorised as anti-inflammatory diets (below the median) and pro-inflammatory diets (above the median). Outcomes included body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and blood pressure. Multilevel linear regression was applied.

Adolescents with a pro-inflammatory diet (above the C-DII median) had a higher mean BMI (β = 0.97 kg/m²; 95% CI: 0.02; 1.92). Among girls, higher mean BMI values were observed for both DII (β = 1.29 kg/m²) and C-DII (β = 1.38 kg/m²). Among those > 14 years, pro-inflammatory diets were associated with higher BMI (β = 2.16 kg/m²), WC (β = 3.73 cm) and WHtR (β = 0.03) for both indices. No associations were observed with blood pressure.

Pro-inflammatory diets were positively associated with higher adiposity, especially among girls and older adolescents. Early dietary interventions may help reduce lifetime cardiometabolic risk.