Association between Dietary Patterns and Chronic Diseases among Chinese Adults in Baoji

Objective. This study was aimed to identify the dietary patterns among Chinese adults in Baoji and explore the association between these dietary patterns and chronic diseases. Methods. With multistage stratified random sampling and semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire, the prevalence of chronic disease and dietary intake was investigated in 2013. We used factor analysis to establish dietary patterns. Results. A total of 5020 participants over 15 years old were included in this study. Five dietary patterns were identified in Baoji named as protein, balanced, beans, prudent, and traditional patterns. There are many protective effects with protein, balanced, and beans dietary patterns on chronic diseases. Conclusions. We should encourage Baoji city residents to choose protein, balanced, and beans dietary patterns and abandon prudent and traditional patterns. 1. Introduction According to the study of World Health Organization (WHO), cardiovascular diseases caused 33.7% of all deaths in the world, while other chronic diseases were responsible for 26.5% [1]. Globally, it has been estimated that premature deaths resulting from hypertension annually are approximately 7.1 million, which account for 64 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) [2]. Hypertension plays a major etiologic role in the development of ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and cardiac and renal failure, and it is a significant risk factor for mortality and disability rates throughout the world [3]. Dietary patterns carry out extraction and analysis on dietary status overall and consider the interaction between all kinds of foods and nutrients. So dietary patterns represent a broader picture of food and nutrient consumption and may thus be more predictive of diseases risk than individual food or nutrient [4]. Furthermore, in addition to studying the role of individual nutrients, dietary patterns have become a focus for nutritional research [5]. Factor analysis of dietary patterns helps us understand the proportion of all kinds of foods in dietary intake by dimension reduction. The variable which represents correlation coefficient between foods and patterns is factor loading, and a positive loading designates positive association with the factor, while a negative loading designates negative association with the factor, and the larger the loading of a given food item to the factor, the greater the contribution of that food item to a specific factor. Dietary habits in Asians including Chinese [6] are substantially different from those of Westerners. Therefore, it is