The correlation between dietary fats intake with total cholesterol and triglycerides levels in patients with coronary heart disease

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a disease caused by the presence of plaque in the coronary arteries because of high cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood. This was an analytic observation using a cross-sectional design. This study was conducted at Heart Outpatient Clinic in Dr. Moewardi Hospital, Surakarta, Indonesia. A total of 131 subjects that had been diagnosed as having coronary heart disease, they were aged between 30-75 years. They were selected using a quota sampling technique. Dietary fat and fatty acid intake were obtained through interviews with semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire in the previous 1 month. Total cholesterol and triglyceride levels were obtained based on laboratory data from CHD patients. The data were analyzed using correlation person product and rank spearman. Fat intake was positively correlated with total cholesterol levels (p=0.034, r=0.186), while fat intake was not correlated with triglyceride levels (p= 0.351, r= 0.148). Fatty acid intake did not correlate with total cholesterol and triglyceride levels (p> 0.05). This study had demonstrated that higher total fat intake was associated with increased total cholesterol levels. Total fat intake was not correlated with triglycerides levels, and it is also true for fatty acid intake with total cholesterol and triglycerides levels.