Association between frequency of dairy product consumption and hypertension: a cross-sectional study in Zhejiang Province, China

BACKGROUND: Hypertension, a well-known risk factor, contributes to millions of deaths from cardiovascular and renal diseases worldwide. However, evidence on the association between frequency of dairy product consumption and hypertension is inconsistent. METHODS: The data for the present study are from the Tongxiang baseline dataset of the China Kadoorie Biobank prospective study. A total of 53,916 participants aged 30–79 years were included in the final analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was utilized to evaluate the association of dairy product consumption with hypertension, and multiple linear regression was conducted to assess the association of dairy product consumption with systolic and diastolic blood pressure. RESULTS: Of the 53,916 participants, 2.6% reported consuming dairy products weekly, and 44.4% had prevalent hypertension. After adjusting for socio-demographic status, lifestyle factors, BMI, waist circumference, sleep duration and snoring, when compared with participants who never consumed dairy products, the odds ratios (95% CI) for hypertension among those consuming dairy products less than once per week, and ≥ 1 time per week were 0.85 (0.77–0.95) and 0.74 (0.65–0.84), respectively. The corresponding odds ratios (95% CI) for men were 0.85 (0.71–1.02) and 0.75 (0.61–0.92), respectively (P(trend) = 0.001), and for women were 0.88 (0.76–1.01) and 0.77 (0.65–0.91), respectively. (P(trend) < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In this large epidemiological study, higher frequency of dairy product consumption is associated with significantly lower odds of hypertension among Chinese adults. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12986-022-00703-2.