Dietary patterns and cardio-metabolic risk in a population of Guatemalan young adults

BACKGROUND: Latin America is facing an increasing burden of nutrition-related non-communicable disease. Little is known about dietary patterns in Guatemalan adults and how dietary patterns are associated with cardio-metabolic disease (CMD) risk. METHODS: This analysis is based on data from a 2002–04 follow-up study of the INCAP Nutrition Supplementation Trial Longitudinal Cohort. Diet data were collected using a validated, semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. We derived dietary patterns using principal components analysis. CMD risk was assessed by anthropometry (body mass index, waist circumference), biochemistry (fasting blood glucose and lipids), and clinical (blood pressure) measures. We used sex-stratified multivariable log binomial models to test associations between dietary pattern tertile and CMD risk factors. The sample included 1428 participants (681 men and 747 women) ages 25–43 years. RESULTS: We derived three dietary patterns (traditional, meat-based modern, and starch-based modern), collectively explaining 24.2% of variance in the diet. Dietary patterns were not associated with most CMD risk factors; however, higher starch-based modern tertiles were associated with increased prevalence of low highdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) in men (Prevalence Ratio (PR) 1.17, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.01, 1.20 for tertile 2; PR 1.20, 95% CI 1.00, 1.44 for tertile 3; p trend 0.04). Higher traditional tertiles were associated with increased prevalence of abdominal obesity in women (PR 1.24, 95% CI 1.07, 1.43 for tertile 2; PR 1.19, 95% CI 1.02, 1.39 for tertile 3; p trend 0.02) but marginally significant reduced prevalence of low HDL-c in men (PR 0.88, 95% CI 0.76, 1.00 for tertile 2; PR 0.85, 95% CI 0.72, 1.00 for tertile 3; p trend 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest the presence of two ‘modern' dietary patterns in Guatemala – one of which was associated with increased prevalence of low HDL-c in men. The association between the traditional dietary pattern and some CMD risk factors may vary by sex. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40795-017-0188-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.