Dietary Patterns and Blood Pressure Change over 5-y Follow-up in the SU.VI.MAX Cohort

Background: Although short-term effects of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet on blood pressure have been shown in intervention studies, less is known about the long-term effects.

Objective: The aim was to study the relation between dietary patterns based on DASH diet characteristics and blood pressure (BP) and BP change in a clinical trial of antioxidants conducted in France from 1994 to 2002.

Design: Repeated 24-h dietary records were collected during the first year of follow-up. Dietary variables studied included fruit and vegetables, dairy products and fat (defined by Keys score), and two hypothesis-oriented scores based on the DASH diet. We performed a cross-sectional analysis of BP measured at the first clinical examination (1995-1996) in 4652 participants aged 35-63 y and a longitudinal analysis of BP change over a median follow-up of 5.4 y (n = 2341).

Results: The mean increases in systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) BPs were 9.3 and 4.5 mm Hg, respectively. After adjustment for potential confounders, higher fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with lower SBP and DBP at first clinical examination (P for trend < 0.02 for both) and a lower 5-y increase in SBP (-2.1 mm Hg in the 4th compared with the 1st quartile; P for trend < 0.004) and DBP (-0.7 mm Hg in the 4th compared with the 1st quartile; P for trend < 0.03). The 2 DASH scores also were significantly associated with a lower BP at the first clinical examination and a lower BP increase. No significant relations were observed with dairy products or Keys score in either analyses.

Conclusion: These results suggest that high fruit and vegetable intakes may be associated with a lower increase in BP with aging.