Daily Dose: ASCVD Risk Reduced by 10% with Diet

Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

On December 1, 2022, we reported on an analysis of the original landmark Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) trial published in the American Journal of Cardiology.

The study

Researchers evaluated the effects of 3 dietary approaches on 10-year risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) based on blood pressure and lipid measurements made before and after the intervention period of 8 weeks. The dietary approaches were a typical “Western” diet (control; low in fiber, high in fat and sodium), a diet heavy in fruit and vegetables, or the DASH diet, which encouraged high intake of fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products, and had a favorable macronutrient profile.

Investigators found that adherence to the DASH diet vs the control diet during the trial was associated with a -10.3% (95% CI, -14.4 to -5.9) reduction in 10-year ASCVD risk. Findings were similar when they compared the results of following the control diet with following the fruits and vegetables diet with the latter associated with a -9.9% (95% CI, -14.0 to -5.5) reduction in 10-year ASCVD risk score. The impact of both regimens, the team observed, was greater among women and Black adults in the cohort.

Clinical implications

"Our study suggests that the DASH dietary pattern may offer Black adults more prevention benefits than the emphasis on fruits and vegetables alone. This is particularly relevant as dietary pattern has been identified as one of the most important mediators of hypertension risk among Black adults."

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