Dietary patterns and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Korean women

Background and aims: The role of dietary patterns in metabolic syndrome has not been adequately investigated in Asian women. We aimed to identify dietary patterns and to evaluate the cross-sectional relationship between dietary patterns and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Korean women.Methods and results: In a cross-sectional study of 4984 women aged 30-79 years, dietary patterns were derived from 16 food groups using factor analysis. Metabolic syndrome was defined based on the Adult Treatment Panel III of the National Cholesterol Education Program (ATPIII NCEP) criteria as having three or more risk factors using a modified obesity index. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between dietary pattern and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Three dietary patterns (Western, healthy and traditional) were identified. Higher consumption of the healthy pattern was inversely associated with metabolic syndrome (OR [95% CI] for highest vs. lowest quartile: 0.58 [0.50-0.91]; P for trend = 0.012) and most components of metabolic syndrome. In a stratified analysis by menopausal status, the inverse association of the healthy dietary pattern and metabolic syndrome was statistically significant only among postmenopausal women (OR [95% CI] for highest vs. lowest quartile: 0.60 [0.40-0.86]; P for trend = 0.004). The Western and traditional patterns showed no association with metabolic syndrome, but were related to some individual risk factors for metabolic syndrome.Conclusions: These results suggest that the healthy dietary pattern is associated with a reduced risk for metabolic syndrome in Korean women, particularly in postmenopausal women.