Background: The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet has been shown to be effective in adolescents as a non-pharmacological treatment for elevated blood pressure. Other factors that influence adoption and adherence of the DASH diet are not yet fully understood.
Objective: To determine the relationship between physical activity and diet adherence in hypertensive adolescents receiving DASH education by evaluating the DASH Score, DASH Component Scores, and minutes of physical activity per week.
Methods: Seventy six adolescents between 11-18 years with diagnosis of prehypertension or stage 1 hypertension received initial counseling by a registered dietitian on the DASH diet. Dietary intake was assessed through three 24-hour recalls and physical activity data through a 7-day recall, both at baseline and after 6 months. DASH diet adherence was determined by computing a DASH score (0-80) based on the participants’ intakes of each DASH component.
Results: In characterizing their physical activity levels at the 6 month assessment, 52 participants did not meet national physical activity standards compared to 24 that met or exceeded these recommendations. Adolescents that met or exceeded the recommendations tended to have a higher average overall DASH score (44.09 vs. 40.22, p=0.09). The component scores with the strongest correlations to physical activity were vegetables (beta=0.264, p=0.023), total dairy (beta=0.305, p=0.006), and low-fat dairy (beta=0.208, p=0.021). Physical activity tended to be negatively associated with oils (beta=-0.199, p=0.092) although the trends did not reach statistical significance.
Conclusions: Participants who were more physically active tended to have higher total DASH scores, representing better diet adherence, than those participants with lower levels of physical activity.