Dietary Patterns Related to Triglyceride and High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and the Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in Korean Men and Women

We aimed to examine whether dietary patterns that explain the variation of triglyceride (TG) to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio were associated with the incidence of type 2 diabetes in Korean adults. We included a total of 5097 adults without diabetes at baseline with a mean follow-up of 11.54 years. Usual diet was assessed by a validated food frequency questionnaire, and serum levels of TG and HDL-C were measured at baseline. We derived dietary pattern scores using 41 food groups as predictors and the TG/HDL-C ratio as a response variable in a stepwise linear regression. We calculated the odds ratio (OR) with the 95% confidence interval (CI) of type 2 diabetes according to pattern scores using multivariate logistic regression. A total of 1069 incident cases of type 2 diabetes were identified. A list of foods characterizing the dietary pattern differed by sex. Higher dietary pattern scores were associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes; ORs (95% CIs) comparing extreme quintiles were 1.53 (1.12–2.09; p for trend = 0.008) for men and 1.33 (0.95–1.86; p for trend = 0.011) for women. Our study suggests the evidence that dietary patterns associated with low levels of TG/HDL-C ratio may have the potential to reduce the burden of type 2 diabetes.