Adequacy of Fatty Acids Consumption Among Individuals in Secondary Cardiovascular Prevention.

BACKGROUND

Adhering to a diet adequate in macronutrients is crucial for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the prevalence of adherence to recommendations for the consumption of dietary fatty acids for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and to estimate whether the presence of certain cardiovascular risk factors would be associated with adherence.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study using baseline data from 2,358 participants included in the "Brazilian Cardioprotective Nutritional Program Trial". Dietary intake and cardiovascular risk factors were assessed. Adequate intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) was considered as ≥10% of total daily energy intake; for monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), 20%; and for saturated fatty acids (SFA), <7% according to the Brazilian Society of Cardiology. A significance level of 5% was considered in the statistical analysis.

RESULTS

No participant adhered to all recommendations simultaneously, and more than half (1,482 [62.9%]) did not adhere to any recommendation. Adherence exclusively to the SFA recommendation was the most prevalent, fulfilled by 659 (28%) participants, followed by adherence exclusively to the PUFA (178 [7.6%]) and MUFA (5 [0.2%]) recommendations. There was no association between the number of comorbidities and adherence to nutritional recommendations (p = 0.269). Participants from the Brazilian Northeast region showed a higher proportion of adherence to SFA consumption recommendations (38.42%) and lower adherence to PUFA intake (3.52%) (p <0.001) compared to other regions.

CONCLUSIONS

Among the evaluated sample, there was low adherence to nutritional recommendations for dietary fatty acid consumption.