Long-term effect of a dietary education program on postmenopausal cardiovascular risk and metabolic syndrome: the Brisighella Heart Study

To evaluate whether a nutritional education intervention on a general population cohort is able to balance the metabolic effects of incident menopause in a large sample of perimenopausal women. We measured body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, plasma lipids, fasting plasma glucose, and prevalence of metabolic syndrome in two groups of perimenopausal nondiabetic women involved in the Brisighella Heart Study, a longitudinal epidemiological study, before (sample size 301) and after (sample size 262) a nutritional education program aimed at improving the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profile in a whole village population. Before the interventional period, women undergoing menopause experienced a significant increase in BMI, systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglycerides (all parameters exhibited p < 0.01). After the nutritional intervention, women undergoing menopause experienced a significant reduction only in triglyceride plasma level (p < 0.001). Metabolic syndrome prevalence was 73 in 301 and 99 in 301 (p = 0.018), respectively, before and after menopause in the preintervention group, and it was 66 in 262 and 68 in 262 (p = 0.871), respectively, in the postintervention group. In our study, a nutritional education program aimed at improving the CVD risk profile of a whole village population is associated with the prevention of increase in systolic blood pressure, BMI, cholesterolemia, and metabolic syndrome prevalence linked to menopause.