Association Between Dietary Quality Indices and Atherosclerosis Risk: A Case-Control Study

Background: Several diet quality scores have been developed to evaluate the health benefits of individual diets such as Healthy Eating Index (HEI), Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH), and Mediterranean diet score (Med). This study aims to determine the relationship between dominant dietary health scores with the risk of atherosclerosis in Iranian adults. Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 323 patients with atherosclerosis and 334 individuals without atherosclerosis as control group. Food Frequency Questionnaire was used for obtaining dietary intakes; then HEI, DASH score, and Med score was calculated. Logistic regression models were used to calculate Odds Ratios (OR) and 95% Confidence intervals (CI) between quartiles of the HEI, DASH and Med and atherosclerosis risk. Results: The results showed that total scores for HEI, DASH, and Med in control group was higher than the atherosclerosis group. The results also indicated that higher adherence to HEI (OR: 0.43; CI: [0.24, 0.76], P-trend = .006), DASH (OR: 0.48; CI: [0.3, 0.78], P-trend = .003), and Mediterranean pattern (OR: 0.4; CI: [0.21, 0.76]) decreased odds ratio of atherosclerosis. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that adherence to HEI, DASH, and Mediterranean diet might be associated with a lower risk of Atherosclerosis and can have a positive effect on general health and prevention of chronic diseases in people.