The correlation between nuts and algae-less diet and children’s blood pressure: from a cross-sectional study in Chongqing

ABSTRACT

Background

Nuts and algae have been shown to improve BP levels, but their effectiveness is controversial.

Aims

This study aims to illustrate the effect of dietary pattern with nuts and algae-less on BP levels in children and adolescents from a cross-sectional study.

Methods

A total of 5645 children from the Chongqing Children’s Health Cohort, aged 9.34 ± 1.74 years with 52.05% males, were analyzed. Stratified analysis was conducted to explore the differences between the two dietary patterns in urban or rural areas, as well as the differences in different gender. Logistic regression was used to analyze the influence factors of increased BP. And a GLM was used to analyze the influence of the two dietary patterns on systolic blood pressure (SBP, mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (DBP, mmHg), and mean arterial pressure (MAP, mmHg).

Results

Children with nuts and algae-less dietary patterns had higher SBP (104.68 ± 10.31 vs 103.81 ± 9.74, P = .006), DBP (64.27 ± 7.53 vs 63.55 ± 7.52, P = .002), and MAP (77.74 ± 7.75 vs 76.97 ± 7.52, P = .001) compared with those children with a balanced diet. After adjusting for covariates, the nuts and algae-less diet was a risk factor for hypertension in children when compared with the balanced diet(OR(95%CI):1.455(1.097,1.930), P = .009). The nuts and algae-less diet has a significant influence on SBP (104.68 ± 10.31 mmHg vs.103.81 ± 9.74 mmHg, P = .006). Stratified analysis by sex showed that nuts and algae-less dietary patterns had a more significant impact on females than males.

Conclusion

Nuts and algae-less dietary pattern correlated with increased BP levels in children, and a greater impact on SBP levels was found in females, suggesting that a balanced diet with appropriate nuts and algae should be proposed for children in China.

KEYWORDS:

• Nuts
• algae
• dietary patterns
• blood pressure
• hypertension

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the laboratory support of the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders and all the staff members of the 6 elementary schools in the two regions.

Author Contributions

XH: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - Review & Editing; QJ and XL: Investigation, Supervision; YF, YL, and ZP: Validation, Resources; YL, YF and XY: Writing – Original Draft, Writing - Review & Editing. All of the authors critically reviewed and approved the final paper.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request (Email: [email protected]).

Disclosure statement

No financial or non-financial benefits have been received or will be received from any party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10641963.2023.2180024

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Major Health Project of Chongqing Science and Technology Bureau (CSTC2021jscx-gksb-N0001); Basic Research Project of Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education of China in 2021(GBRP-202106); Research and Innovation Team of Chongqing Medical University (W0088); Joint Medical Research Project of Chongqing Municipal Health Commission and Chongqing Science and Technology Bureau (2020MSXM062), National Key Research and Development Project (2017YFC0211705), Education Commission of Chongqing Municipality (KJQN201900443) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (82003521). The funders had no role in the study design, the data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.