Background: The dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) encourages high fruit, vegetable, and lean protein consumption and low salt, red meat, and fat intake to prevent or treat hypertension. However, besides hypertension, adherence to this diet has been shown to decrease other cardiovascular risk factors. Methods: This study assessed the relationship between the DASH diet and cardiovascular risk factors in a cross‑, sectional study of 2, 831 adults chosen by multistage cluster sampling from 27 counties of Khuzestan province, Iran. DASH scores were calculated using data obtained from a qualitative food frequency questionnaire. Regression models were used to evaluate the association of DASH scores and common cardiovascular risk factors. Results: Significant trends were observed across quintiles of DASH scores for systolic blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, triglyceride, total cholesterol, and its components (p < 0·, 05). After adjusting for potential confounders such as sex, age, ethnicity, residence, wealth score, physical activity, energy intake, and family history of heart disease, the multiple regression analysis for each cardiovascular risk factor revealed that being in the highest quintile of total DASH score (OR = 0. 72, 95% CI 0. 52–, 0. 99) was negatively associated with hyperglycemia. Conclusions: This study showed a positive relationship between DASH diet adherence and lower serum levels of glucose, triglycerides, and cholesterol. Prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Background: Although empirically-derived dietary patterns have been examined in relation to depression, limited data are available linking theory-based dietary patterns to psychological health.Objective: We aimed to investigate the association between adherence to DASH-style diet and psychological health among Iranian adults.Methods: This cross-sectional study was done among 3846 Iranian general adults in Isfahan, Iran. Dietary assessment was conducted using a validated 106-item dish-based semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire.To investigate participant’s adherence to DASHstyle diet, we created DASH score based on earlier publications focusing on 8 components (fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, dairy products, and grains, sweetened beverages and sweets, sodium, and red and processed meats). Participants were classified into three categories based on their DASH score [low (≤40), moderate (41-50), and high adherence (≥51)]. Psychological health was examined by means of validated Hospital-Anxiety- Depression Scale (HADS) and GHQ questionnaires.Depression, anxiety and psychological distress were defined based on standard criteria.Results: We found that moderate adherence to DASH dietary pattern was associated with lower odds of depression (OR: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.59-0.90, Ptrend=0.63) compared with those with the lowest adherence. In our stratified analyses, these associations remained significant for women (0.70; 0.54-0.91) and for normal-weight participants (0.70; 0.52-0.92). Moreover, after controlling for potential confounders, an inverse association was observed between high adherence to DASH-style diet and anxiety in normal-weight participants (0.61; 0.37-0.98). Such associations were also seen between moderate adherence to DASH diet and anxiety in overweight or obese individuals (0.63; 0.42-0.95). We failed to find any significant association between consumption of DASH diet and psychological distress.Conclusion: We found an inverse association between moderate adherence to DASH dietary pattern and depression.The inverse association between DASH diet and anxiety was only observed in normal-weight participants.Further prospective studies are required to investigate to confirm these findings.

Background: Despite the growing body of evidence from western societies on the association of dietary patterns and stroke, limited data are available in this regard from developing countries. This study was conducted to examine the association between adherence to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and risk of stroke among Iranian population.Methods: This hospital-based case-control study, included 195 stroke patients and 195 controls, was conducted in Alzahra University Hospital, Isfahan, Iran. Cases were stroke patients that were hospitalized in neurology ward of Alzahra University Hospital. Controls were randomly selected among hospitalized patients in orthopedic or surgical wards of this center. A validated FFQ was used to assess the usual dietary intakes. We constructed the DASH diet score based on food and nutrients emphasized or minimized in the DASH diet.Results: The prevalence of stroke among those in the top quartile of DASH diet score was 40%, which was 15% lower than that in bottom quartile; this difference was marginally significant (P=0.10). After controlling for age, sex and total energy intake, adherence to the DASH diet was inversely associated with the risk of stroke (OR: 0.52; 95% CI: 0.28; 0.98). These associations remained significant even after additional controlling for physical activity and smoking; such that individuals in the highest quartile of the DASH diet score had 58% lower risk of stroke than those in the lowest category (OR: 0.42; 95% CI: 0.22, 0.81).However, after further adjustment for BMI, this association became marginally significant (OR: 0.54; 95% CI: 0.27, 1.08) indicating an obesity-dependent association.Conclusion: We found an inverse relationship between the DASH style diet and prevalence of stroke. Prospective studies are needed to confirm this association.