Dose–response association between vegetable consumption and dyslipidaemia among continental Africans in five countries: evidence from the SIREN and AWI-Gen studies

The burden of dyslipidaemia is increasing, and the association of dietary exposure, especially vegetable consumption, with dyslipidaemia among Africans is poorly characterized. This study evaluated the relationship between vegetable consumption and dyslipidaemia among Africans.

The frequency of vegetable consumption (servings/week) was assessed in this study involving 13 172 participants, including 6586 pairs of dyslipidaemia cases and non-cases (matched for age within ±5 years, sex, and country), in a matched case–control design. Multivariable-adjusted conditional logistic regression models were applied to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the odds of dyslipidaemia across quartiles of frequency of vegetable consumption at a two-sided P < 0.05. The mean age was 52.18 ± 10.15 years, and 6898 (52.4%) were females. The median (IQR) vegetable consumption intake was 7.0 (2.0, 14.0) servings per week and the prevalence of dyslipidaemia by the distribution of vegetable consumption was 1776 (52.0%) for low (first quartile), 1530 (49.9%) for moderate (second quartile), 1720 (49.2%) for sufficient (third quartile), and 1560 (48.9%) for high (fourth quartile) frequency of vegetable consumption. The multivariable-adjusted OR (95%CI) of dyslipidaemia odds by the distribution of vegetable consumption were 1.00 for low, 0.89 (0.80, 0.99) for moderate, 0.84 (0.75, 0.93) for sufficient, and 0.81 (0.72, 0.92) for high; P for trend = 0.005, with a OR (95%CI) of 0.97 (0.94, 0.99) per +7 servings/week change after adjusting for age, family history of cardiovascular diseases, education, ever smoked, currently consume alcohol, physical inactivity, body mass index, diabetes mellitus status, and hypertension. A similar trend was observed for low high-density lipoprotein (<40 mg/dL): 1.00 for low, 0.90 (0.78, 1.04) for moderate, 0.93 (0.81, 1.06) for medium, and 0.80 (0.68, 0.94) for high; P for trend = 0.01, adjusting for similar covariates.

Higher vegetable consumption was associated with lower odds of dyslipidaemia in this sample of Africans after accounting for multiple covariates.