Effect of ‘rice’ pattern on high blood pressure by gender and obesity: using the community-based KoGES cohort

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to examine the association between dietary pattern and the risk of high blood pressure (BP) and to estimate the attenuated effect by gender and obesity on the association using data from a prospective cohort study in Korea. DESIGN: Prospective study. Diet was assessed using a validated 103-item FFQ and was input into factor analysis after adjustment for total energy intake. SETTING: Community-based Korean Genome Epidemiology Study (KoGES) cohort. PARTICIPANTS: Healthy individuals (n 5151) without high BP at recruitment from the community-based cohort study. RESULTS: Dietary pattern was not associated with the risk of high BP regardless of the type of covariates, with the exception of the ‘rice’ pattern. The effect of the ‘rice’ pattern was observed in both men (P(trend) = 0·013) and women (P(trend) < 0·001), but the statistical significance remained only in women after adjustment for confounders (P(trend) = 0·004). The positive association of the ‘rice’ pattern with high BP risk was attenuated by obesity. After stratification by gender and obese status, in particular, the harmful effect of the ‘rice’ pattern was predominantly observed in obese women (P(trend) < 0·001) only. CONCLUSIONS: This longitudinal study in Korean adults found a positive association of the ‘rice’ pattern with long-term development of incident high BP, predominantly in women. The association is likely to be attenuated by gender and obese status.