title: Diet quality and adherence to a healthy diet in Japanese male workers with untreated hypertension.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  As Japanese societies rapidly undergo westernisation, the prevalence of hypertension is increasing. We investigated the association between dietary quality and the prevalence of untreated hypertension in Japanese male workers.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a cross-sectional study of 433 male workers who completed a brief food frequency questionnaire. Adherence to the WHO-based Healthy Diet Indicator (HDI), the American Heart Association 2006 Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, and Mediterranean-style diet was assessed using four adherence indexes (HDI score, AI-84 score, DASH score and MED score). Hypertension classes were classified into three categories: non-hypertension, untreated hypertension and treated hypertension (ie, taking antihypertensive medication).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of untreated hypertension and treated hypertension was 22.4% and 8.5%, respectively. Patients with untreated hypertension had significantly lower HDI and AI-84 scores compared with non-hypertension. DASH and MED scores across the three hypertension classes were comparable. After adjusting for age, energy intake, smoking habit, alcohol drinking, physical activity and salt intake, a low adherence to HDI and a lowest quartile of AI-84 score were associated with a significantly higher prevalence of untreated hypertension, with an OR of 3.33 (95% CI 1.39 to 7.94, p=0.007) and 2.23 (1.09 to 4.53, p=0.027), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A lower dietary quality was associated with increased prevalence of untreated hypertension in Japanese male workers. Our findings support a potential beneficial impact of nutritional assessment using diet qualities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Nutrition, Faculty of Health Science, Kio University, Kitakatsuragi-gun, Japan.
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kanauchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Narahigashi Hospital, Tenri, Japan.
authors.forename: Kimiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kanauchi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000572:American Heart Association; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet; D038441:Diet, Mediterranean; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D015995:Prevalence; D014481:United States; D014944:World Health Organization
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents
keywords: EPIDEMIOLOGY; NUTRITION & DIETETICS