The Association of Diet Quality Indices with Metabolic Syndrome Components: A PERSIAN Cohort Study in Fasa, Iran

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a significant health concern both in developed and developing countries. This cohort Prospective Epidemiological Research Study in Iran (PERSIAN) aimed to determine the association of diet quality, assessed by the Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015) and Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS), with MetS components among individuals with MetS in Fasa, southern Iran. In this cross-sectional study, 907 individuals with MetS aged 35-65 years were recruited from the Fasa PERSIAN Cohort Study, Fasa, Iran. The National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) and Iranian National Committee of Obesity criteria were used to define MetS. A 125-item food frequency questionnaire wasemployed to evaluate dietary intake. The association between the quartiles of dietary scores and MetS components analyzed by Multivariate linear regression with the backward method. The mean age of the individuals (67.3% female) was 48.75±8.22 years. After adjusting for covariates, the highest HEI-2015 quartile was positively correlated with fasting blood sugar (FBS, β=7.30, 95%CI=1.03, 13.58) and triglyceride levels (β=32.71, 95%CI=9.09, 56.33). The MDS had a significant negative association with the systolic blood pressure (SBP) in both crude and adjusted models (β=-3.14, 95%CI=-6.2, -0.019). The triglyceride (TG, β=26.008, 95%CI=4.32, 47.69) and FBS (β=5.77, 95%CI=0.057, 11.49) levels also were positively correlated with the highest MDS quartile. The SBP was shown to be inversely associated with the MDS, wherease higher adherence to HEI-2015 and MDS values were also linked with increased FBS and TG levels.