Nut consumption and incidence of hypertension: The SUN prospective cohort☆
Received 5 November 2008; received in revised form 7 March 2009; accepted 23 April 2009. published online 17 August 2009.
Abstract
Background and aims
The consumption of tree nuts could reduce the risk of hypertension, but scarce research has been done to evaluate this potential association. We assessed the association between nut consumption and the incidence of hypertension among 9919 Spanish university graduates followed-up biennially for a median of 4.3 years.
Methods and results
Food habits were assessed with a validated 136-item food-frequency questionnaire. Nut consumption was classified into four categories: rarely/never, 1–3/month, 1/week, and 2+/week. A participant was classified as an incident case of hypertension when, being free of hypertension at baseline, he/she subsequently reported a physician-made diagnosis of hypertension in at least one of the follow-up questionnaires. The incidence of hypertension was 12.4 per 1000 person-years. We found no association between nut consumption and incidence of hypertension after adjusting for sex, age and other dietary and non-dietary potential confounders (hazard ratio [HR] for those in the highest vs. lowest nut consumption category=0.77 [IC 95%: 0.46–1.30] p=0.795). Results were not modified when we stratified them analyses according to sex or to body mass index.
Conclusion
Our data do not provide evidence for an inverse association between nut consumption and incident hypertension in our cohort. Further results from cohorts and trials with a higher baseline risk of hypertension should be obtained to test this relationship.
aDepartment of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Medical School, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Irunlarrea 1, E 31080 Pamplona, Navarra, Spain
bDepartment of Maternal and Child Nursing and Public Health, Nursing School, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Avenida Alfredo Balena, 190. Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, CEP 30130-100 Brazil
☆ The SUN Study has received funding from the Spanish Government, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Grants PI030678, PI040233, PI070240, RD06/0045, and G03/140), the Navarra Regional Government (PI141/2005) and the University of Navarra.
ABSTRACT