Stricter Adherence to Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) and Its Association with Lower Blood Pressure, Visceral Fat, and Waist Circumference in University Students Navarro Prado, Silvia Schmidt RioValle, Jacqueline Montero Alonso, Miguel Ángel Fernández Aparicio, Ángel González Jiménez, Emilio Blood pressure Eating habits University students Young adults Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) We are grateful to the university students for their participation in this study. How diet affects blood pressure (BP) in young adults has not been studied in sufficient depth. For this purpose, we analyzed adherence to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) dietary pattern and BP in Spanish university students. The sample population of our cross-sectional study consisted of 244 subjects (18–31 years old), who were in good health. Measurements were taken of their systolic and diastolic BP. A food frequency questionnaire and 72 h food record were used to assess their dietary intake in the previous year. The resulting DASH score was based on foodstuffs that were emphasized or minimized in the DASH diet. Analysis of covariance adjusted for potential confounding factors showed that the mean values for systolic BP, visceral fat rating, and waist circumference (WC) of the subjects in the upper third of the DASH score were significantly lower than those of the subjects in the lower third (for systolic BP: mean difference −4.36 mmHg, p = 0.004; for visceral fat rating: mean difference −0.4, p = 0.024; for waist circumference: mean difference −3.2, p = 0.019). Stricter adherence to the DASH dietary pattern led to a lower BP, visceral fat rating, and WC values in these university students. Nevertheless, further prospective studies are needed to confirm these results. 2020-06-10T12:38:26Z 2020-06-10T12:38:26Z 2020-03 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Navarro-Prado, S., Schmidt-RioValle, J., Montero-Alonso, M. A., Fernández-Aparicio, Á., & González-Jiménez, E. (2020). Stricter Adherence to Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) and Its Association with Lower Blood Pressure, Visceral Fat, and Waist Circumference in University Students. Nutrients, 12(3), 740. [doi:10.3390/nu12030740] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/62424 doi:10.3390/nu12030740 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España MDPI