Relationship between Nutrition and Alcohol Consumption with Blood Pressure: The ESTEBAN Survey.

Plain Language Summary

Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) is a widely used dietary intervention for hypertension and includes eight dietary components which should be increased (fruits, vegetables, legumes, low-fat dairy, whole grains) or minimized (salt, sweetened beverages, red and processed meats). The ESTEBAN survey was conducted on a representative population of French adults. Data collected included dietary intake, clinical and biochemical markers (including blood pressure, BP) and physical activity. Data from 2105 participants were included in the analyses. In this article, data from the ESTEBAN survey were used to evaluate and quantify the relationships between alcohol consumption and diet (represented by the DASH score) and BP. 31.3% of the study population had hypertension, 38.1% of men and 25.0% of women, and almost half of these took antihypertensive medication (48.9%). In both genders, there was a statistically significant negative association between the DASH score and BP, i.e. adhering to the principles of the DASH diet was associated with lower BP. The differences in BP observed between those with the highest and lowest DASH score were 1.8 mmHg in systolic BP (SBP) and 0.6 mmHg in diastolic BP (DBP) in men, and 1.5 mmHg in SBP and 0.4 mmHg in DBP in women. Alcohol consumption was statistically significantly correlated with higher BP in men, but not women. The difference between those with the highest and those with the lowest alcohol consumption was 3.0 mmHg in SBP and 0.8 mmHg in DBP. The authors conclude that adhering to the DASH diet and reducing alcohol consumption could be effective nutritional strategies for the prevention of hypertension.