DASH diet and prevalent metabolic syndrome in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos

The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet is recommended for lowering blood pressure and preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD), but little data exist on these associations in US Hispanics/Latinos. We sought to assess associations between DASH score and prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components in diverse Hispanics/Latinos. We studied 10,741 adults aged 18–74 in the multicenter Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. Dietary intake was measured using two 24-hour recalls, and MetS defined per the 2009 harmonized guidelines. We assessed cross-sectional associations of DASH score and MetS (and its dichotomized components) using survey logistic regression, and DASH and MetS continuous components using linear regression. We also stratified these models by Hispanic/Latino heritage group to explore heritage-specific associations. We found no associations between DASH and MetS prevalence. DASH was inversely associated with both measures of blood pressure (p < 0.01 for systolic and p < 0.001 for diastolic) in the overall cohort. DASH was also inversely associated with diastolic blood pressure in the Mexican (p < 0.05), Central American (p < 0.05), and South American (p < 0.01) groups; triglycerides (p < 0.05) in the Central American group; fasting glucose overall (p < 0.01) and in the Mexican group (p < 0.01); and waist circumference overall (p < 0.05) and in the South American group (p < 0.01). DASH was positively associated with HDL-cholesterol (p < 0.01) in the Central American group. DASH may better capture diet-MetS associations in Hispanic/Latino subpopulations such as Central/South Americans; this study also adds evidence that Hispanics/Latinos should be analyzed by heritage. Further research, and/or culturally tailored DASH measures will help further explain between-heritage differences.