Hye Young Kim, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Objectives: An evaluation tool has been recently developed to assess the extent to which Korean older adults adhere to dietary guidelines. This study aimed to investigate how compliance to dietary guidelines is associated with the risk of hypertension and hyperlipidemia prevalence in Korean older adults.
Methods: A face-to-face survey was conducted on 800 men and women aged 65 or older (400 men, 400 women) residing in five regions across the country to assess the adherence to Korean dietary guidelines. Data were analyzed to identify the mean and quartiles of dietary guideline practice scores. Differences in dietary guideline practice (DGP) scores between those with hypertension or hyperlipidemia and those without were compared, and the risk of hypertension or hyperlipidemia according to DGP quartiles was analyzed using multivariate logistic analysis adjusted for gender, age, education and body mass index.
Results: The average age of survey participants was 70.8 years. The prevalence of hypertension was 57.1% (58.5% in males, 55.8% in females), and the prevalence of hyperlipidemia was 33.9% (28.7% in males, 39.0% in females). Among surveyed elderly individuals, those with high blood pressure exhibited significantly lower mean DGP scores compared to those without high blood pressure (55.5 vs. 58.8). Similarly, individuals with hyperlipidemia had significantly lower DGP scores than those without hyperlipidemia (55.0 vs. 57.9). In the multivariate logistic regression model, the odds ratio for hypertension was 2.25 times higher (CI = 1.47-3.46; p for trend = 0.0001) at the lowest(Q1) quartile of DGP compared to the highest(Q4) quartile, and the odds ratio for hyperlipidemia was 2.39 times higher (CI = 1.51-3.77; p for trend = 0.0001).at the Q1 of DGP compared to Q4.
Conclusions: Compliance with dietary guidelines among Korean older adults differs in the risk of hypertension and hyperlipidemia, suggesting that compliance with dietary guidelines may help prevent or manage these conditions.
Funding Sources: This study was conducted by a research grant from the Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.
