Dietary Patterns and Their Associations with General and Abdominal Obesity Among Adults in Gonabad in 2019: A Cross-Sectional Study

Obesity is serious and most important underlying risk factor on incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In the last two decades, obesity has been on an increasing trend globally and across all age groups. Using dietary pattern analysis method could provide more information about nutritional etiology of chronic disease such as obesity. The aim of this study is to determine the association between major dietary patterns and general and central obesity among adults in Gonabad in 2019.

This cross-sectional study included 250 individuals aged 18-70 years living in Gonabad, Iran. Participants were selected by a multi-stage sampling method. The dietary intake of participants during the past year was evaluated using the semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), which included 168 foods items. Factor analysis was used for identifying major dietary patterns. The relationship between major dietary patterns and general and abdominal obesity was assessed by chi-square test. All data were analyzed by SPSS 14 at significance level of P<0.05.

Participants ages ranged between 18 and 70 years old, of whom 44.8% were male and 82.4% were married. Two healthy and unhealthy dietary patterns were identified. There was no significant relationship between unhealthy diet and height (p=0.82) and waist circumference (p=0.32) variables, but this dietary pattern was correlated with body weight (p=0.003), hip circumference (p< 0.001) and body mass index (p< 0.001). Also, there were significant relationship between healthy dietary pattern and height (p<0.001), weight (p<0.001), waist circumference (p<0.001), hip circumference (p<0.001) and body mass index (p=0.001).The unhealthy diet was significantly associated with general obesity (p <0.001) and abdominal obesity (p=0.01). Both general and abdominal obesity measures were significantly associated with Healthy dietary pattern (p = 0.003 and p <0.001 respectively).

Major dietary patterns were significantly associated with general and abdominal obesity among adults in Gonabad. Further studies with future prospective studies, are required to confirm these findings.