Influence of diet with low glycemic index on anthropometric parameters in patients with atherosclerotic coronary artery disease

Type of funding sources: None.

Diet with low glycemic index (DLGI) has been demonstrated favorable effect on several biochemical indexes. Purpose of the study was to evaluate the diet with low glycemic index on anthropometric parameters such as on body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC), waist to hip ratio (WHR) in patients with atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (ACAD).

160 patients with confirmed ACAD, aged 38-76 years old (mean age 58.2±12.0 years; male=48%) entered as three months dietary intervention either with DLGI (n=80) or routine diet (RD, n=80) together with standard therapy from 2016 to 2019. BMI, WC, HC, WHR were checked at baseline and in three months of the intervention. All statistical analysis were performed by STATA software.

DLGI showed favorable effect on BMI (from 29.8±8.12 to 91 kg/m2 in Group 1 vs. from 30.2±9.30 to 28.8±8.7 kg/m2 in Group 2, P<0.05), WC (from 100.6±18.5 cm to 91.6±16.8 cm vs. from 98.9±19.2 cm to 95.6±18.1 cm, p<0.05), HC (from 95.8±20.2 cm to 87.4±18.4 cm vs. from 97.0±19.8 cm to 96.2±19.5 cm) and WHR (from 1.1±0.9 cm to 0.9±0.8 cm vs. from 1.0±0.9 cm to 0.98±0.78 cm) than routine diet. Even though, BMI, WC, HC and WHR decreased in both groups from baseline, there were only statistically significant changes in Group 1 compared to Group 2. When we separately analyzed gender differences men tended to be more likely to be influenced by diet with low glycemic index (P>0.05) than women in terms of WC, HC and WHR however there were not observed significantly changes in BMI by gender.

DLGI showed superiority to reduce BMI, WC, HC and WHR patients with confirmed ACAD. Men had a tendency to be affected by WC, HC and WHR in DLGI intervention. Further studies are required with large amount of patients to clarify.