Adherence to Mediterranean diet and cardiovascular risk factors in Sicily, South Italy

We evaluated the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension in relation to adherence to the Mediterranean diet. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on randomly enrolled 3090 subjects (14 to 88 y old) living in Sicily, Southern Italy. Anthropometric indices were measured and adherence to the Mediterranean diet was assessed by a diet score that incorporated the inherent characteristics of this diet. Adherence rates did not differ between rural and urban area, although older age (odds ratio [OR] 1.01, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1-1.01), higher education (OR 1.26, 95% CI: 1.03-1.54), and marital status (OR 1.31, 95% CI: 1.05-1.63) were associated with higher adherence compared with lower categories. Prevalence of overweight and obesity was 35.4 and 13.9%, respectively. Hypertensive subjects were 27.7% and diabetic were 5.7%. An inverse relation was observed between diet score, body mass index (r = -0.045, P <0.001) and waist circumference (r = -0.023, P <0.001) after adjusting for sex and age. Greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet (i.e., highest tertile) was associated with lower odds of being obese (OR 0.34, 95% CI: 0.24-0.50), hypertensive (OR 0.74, 95% CI: 0.56-0.98), and diabetic (OR 0.40, 95% CI: 0.24-0.77) compared with a non-Mediterranean diet (i.e., lowest tertile) after controlling for age, sex, physical activity status, and other variables. We observed an inverse relation between adherence to a Mediterranean dietary pattern and prevalence of obesity in population-based sample, irrespective of various potential confounders.