Dietary Patterns and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Spanish Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the SI! Program for Health Promotion in Secondary Schools

Previous studies on the association between dietary habits and cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) in adolescents have generated conflicting results. The aim of this study was to describe dietary patterns (DP) in a large sample of Spanish adolescents and to assess their cross-sectional relationship with CVRF. In total, 1324 adolescents aged 12.5 ± 0.4 years (51.6% boys) from 24 secondary schools completed a self-reported food frequency questionnaire. DPs were derived by cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA). Anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, lipid profile, and glucose levels were assessed. Linear mixed models were applied to estimate the association between DPs and CVRF. Three DP-related clusters were obtained: Processed (29.2%); Traditional (39.1%); and Healthy (31.7%). Analogous patterns were obtained in the PCA. No overall differences in CVRF were observed between clusters except for z-BMI values, total cholesterol, and non-HDL cholesterol, with the Processed cluster showing the lowest mean values. However, differences were small. In conclusion, the overall association between DPs, as assessed by two different methods, and most analyzed CVRF was weak and not clinically relevant in a large sample of adolescents. Prospective analysis may help to disentangle the direction of these associations.This research was funded by the SHE Foundation, the “la Caixa” Foundation (LCF/PR/CE16//10700001 and LCF/PR/MS19/12220001), and the Fundació la Marató de TV3 (369/C/2016). R.F-J. received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant No 707642. Support was also provided by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (AGL2016–75329-R) and Generalitat de Catalunya. The CNIC is supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCNU) and the Pro CNIC Foundation, and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV-2015-0505). A.T.-R. is supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades through a Juan de la Cierva-Formación postdoctoral fellowship (FJCI-2016-28694).S