Nguyen Xuan-Mai T, Li Yanping, Whitbourne Stacey B, Djousse Luc, Wang Dong D, Ivey Kerry, Willett Walter C, Gaziano John Michael, Cho Kelly, Hu Frank B
Million Veteran Program Boston Coordinating Center, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, United States.
Department of Internal Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
Curr Dev Nutr. 2024 Sep 29;8(10):104461. doi: 10.1016/j.cdnut.2024.104461. eCollection 2024 Oct.
Dietary quality plays an important role in disease development and prognosis, and diet is also a key contributor to disparities in many chronic diseases and health conditions.
This study aimed to assess racial and ethnic disparities experienced by veterans; we examined food intake and dietary quality across different racial and ethnic groups of United States veterans.
The study included 420,730 males and females aged 19-107 y (91.2% males) enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program with plausible dietary intake measured by food frequency questionnaire. Dietary quality was evaluated with dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) score. Dietary intakes of various race and ethnicity groups were standardized to the age distribution of non-Hispanic White participants, separately for males and females. Differences across race and ethnicity groups were compared using general linear regression models after adjustment for socioeconomic and lifestyle factors as well as military service.
Compared to non-Hispanic White males, non-Hispanic Black males had a relatively lower DASH score, higher red and processed meats, higher sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), and lower low-fat dairy intakes. Non-Hispanic Asian males had a relatively higher DASH score as compared to non-Hispanic White males with relatively higher intakes of fruits and vegetables and relatively lower intakes of sodium, red meat and SSBs. Age-standardized DASH scores of Hispanic males and "Other" race/ethnicity groups were not statistically different from non-Hispanic White males. Similar race and ethnicity dietary patterns were found in females, although not all reached a statistically significant level.
A modest difference in overall dietary quality (i.e., DASH score) was observed, but unique differences in food preferences across the different racial/ethnic groups were identified. Findings from our study may provide insight for the potential development of specific interventions to help address nutritional disparities experienced among veterans.
饮食质量在疾病发展和预后中起着重要作用，饮食也是许多慢性病和健康状况差异的关键因素。
本研究旨在评估退伍军人所经历的种族和民族差异；我们研究了美国退伍军人不同种族和民族群体的食物摄入量和饮食质量。
该研究纳入了420730名年龄在19 - 107岁的男性和女性（91.2%为男性），他们参加了退伍军人事务部的百万退伍军人计划，通过食物频率问卷测量了合理的饮食摄入量。饮食质量采用终止高血压饮食（DASH）评分进行评估。不同种族和民族群体的饮食摄入量分别按照非西班牙裔白人参与者的年龄分布进行标准化，分为男性和女性。在调整了社会经济和生活方式因素以及军事服役情况后，使用一般线性回归模型比较不同种族和民族群体之间的差异。
与非西班牙裔白人男性相比，非西班牙裔黑人男性的DASH评分相对较低，红肉和加工肉摄入量较高，含糖饮料（SSB）摄入量较高，低脂乳制品摄入量较低。与非西班牙裔白人男性相比，非西班牙裔亚洲男性的DASH评分相对较高，水果和蔬菜摄入量相对较高，钠、红肉和SSB摄入量相对较低。西班牙裔男性和“其他”种族/民族群体的年龄标准化DASH评分与非西班牙裔白人男性没有统计学差异。在女性中也发现了类似的种族和民族饮食模式，尽管并非所有都达到统计学显著水平。
观察到总体饮食质量（即DASH评分）存在适度差异，但不同种族/民族群体在食物偏好上存在独特差异。我们研究的结果可能为制定特定干预措施提供见解，以帮助解决退伍军人中存在的营养差异问题。
