Abstract P474: Association Between Dietary Patterns and Incident Hypertension in Regards (REasons for Geographic And Regional Differences in Stroke) Participants

Background: The lifetime hypertension prevalence in the US is >70%. Dietary patterns may partially explain this overall risk. We sought to explore the association between dietary intake and risk of incident hypertension. Methods: REGARDS participants without hypertension at Visit 1 (2003-2007) were included, excluding those missing dietary data or Visit 2 follow-up (2013-2016). The exposure of interest was quartile of adherence to 5 dietary patterns previously determined among REGARDS participants using food frequency questionnaires and factor analysis: Convenience, Plant-Based, Sweets, Southern, and Alcohol/Salad (descriptions in Table 1). The outcome of interest was incident hypertension, defined as a blood pressure of ≥130/80 mmHg or the use of antihypertensive medication at follow up. Modified Poisson regression estimated risk ratios (RR), adjusting for demographics, socioeconomic factors, health behaviors, and medical conditions. Results: Of the 3,423 (mean [SD] age 61.6 [± 8.4] years, 58.5% women, 17.9% Black race), 42% (1,438) developed hypertension at median follow-up of 9 years. In unadjusted models, there was no clear association between Convenience, Plant-Based, or Sweets dietary patterns and incident hypertension (Table 1). High adherence to a Southern pattern was associated with incident hypertension. This association remained when adjusting for demographics, but not when adjusting for socioeconomic variables, health behaviors, and comorbid conditions. High adherence to the Alcohol/Salad dietary pattern also had no clear association with incident hypertension risk in the unadjusted model. However, in the fully adjusted model, there was greater risk of incident hypertension with greater adherence to the Alcohol/Salad pattern. Conclusions: Certain dietary patterns in REGARDS were associated with greater risk of incident hypertension. Future analyses to examine which food groups may be driving differential associations may help develop dietary strategies to reduce hypertension.