Dietary determinants of obesity among Mexican women

Introduction Lifestyle and dietary habits in the Mexican population have dramatically changed in the last 20 years, reflected in an increased prevalence of overweight and obesity in both urban and rural adult populations. The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Mexican adults is 38.8% and 32.4%, respectively. In adults, abdominal obesity is more prevalent among women than men (82.8% versus 64.5%, respectively). In women over 60 years of age, overweight and obesity rates are even greater—nearly 40% are overweight and 35.5% obese. A healthy diet has been shown to prevent weight gain. It is therefore important to investigate dietary factors that are most strongly associated with obesity in this highly obese population group. Dietary patterns are used to assess the overall diet. One approach to evaluate dietary patterns is to use a priori patterns which are based on dietary recommendations. The objective of this study was to evaluate the associations between the consumption of food groups and a priori defined dietary patterns and anthropometric measures in women from the CAMA study. Methods Our study population is based on 1062 women (35 to 69-years-old) from the control group of the CAMA study, which is a multi-centre population-based case-control study on breast cancer conducted in Mexico. Each woman was interviewed via personal interview during which dietary intakes were assessed using a semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire. The indices used in the study are the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) score, the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) score, the Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) and the Diet Quality Index (DQI) score. To estimate associations of food groups and dietary patterns with anthropometric measures, generalized linear regression models were used and adjusted for potential confounders, such as age, centre and educational level. Results Mean age, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) among the participants were 51.1 (years), 30.5 (kg/m 2 ), 99.4 (cm), 109.3 (cm) and 0.91, respectively. When individual food groups were examined, a higher consumption of legumes was associated with lower body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC). Regarding dietary patterns, a higher adherence to MDS was associated with lower WC. We did not observe any significant association between other food groups or a priori dietary patterns and anthropometric measurements in models adjusted for confounders. Conclusions In this population of Mexican women, most of the a priori dietary scores appeared to be of limited value in predicting the association between diet and anthropometric measures. However, higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with lower WC.