ASSOCIATION BETWEEN DIETARY QUALITY AND SUBCLINICAL MYOCARDIAL INJURY IN NHANES III STUDY

Therapeutic Area

ASCVD /CVD Risk Reduction

Background

Adherence to a high-quality diet is linked to a lower risk of clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD), however, the relationship between dietary quality and subclinical myocardial injury (SCMI) on electrocardiogram (ECG) is understudied.

Methods

This analysis included 6580 participants without CVD who underwent ECG in the Third United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) conducted between 1988 and 1994. Relying on 24-hour dietary recall interviews, Dietary quality was assessed using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI). We excluded participants with missing ECG data or HEI scores. The HEI scores (ranging 0-100), were calculated, with a higher score indicating better diet quality. The overall HEI score comprised scores for the consumption of grains, fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, and dietary variety. Participants were classified into tertiles based on both their overall HEI scores and the scores of each of the 10 individual HEI components. Tertile 3 denoted the highest HEI score, while tertile 1 represented the lowest. SCMI was defined as a cardiac infarction/injury score ≥10 on ECG. The cross‐sectional relationship between HEI scores and SCMI was assessed using multivariate logistic regression models.

Results

The prevalence of SCMI in tertile 3, tertile 2 and tertile 1 was 543 (24.7%), 570 (26.0%) and 609 (27.8%), respectively (p value = 0.063). When compared to participants in tertile 3, those in tertile 1 had a 1.29-fold higher odds of SCMI. Similarly, among the individual dietary quality components, participants in tertile 1, compared to those in tertile 3, had 1.19-fold higher odds of SCMI for fruit intake, 1.15-fold higher odds for fat intake, and 1.22-fold higher odds for dietary variety (Table).

Conclusions

In the NHANES III study, there was a significant association between low HEI scores and higher odds of SCMI. These results underscore the potential benefit of maintaining a high-quality dietary intake in preventing subclinical CVD.