Dietary Patterns in Chinese Americans are Associated with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors, the Chinese American Cardiovascular Health Assessment (CHA CHA)

Abstract

Little is known about the dietary patterns of Chinese Americans. Understanding their dietary patterns can provide insights for addressing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among Chinese American immigrants. The objective of this study was to identify dietary patterns among Chinese American immigrants living in New York City (NYC) and to describe associations with demographic and CVD risk factors. A validated Food Frequency Questionnaire assessed usual dietary intake in Chinese American immigrants living in NYC as part of the Chinese American Cardiovascular Health Assessment (CHA CHA) in 2010-2011 (n = 1973, age range 21-89 years). Principal components analysis with varimax rotation retaining three factors with eigenvalues > 1.5 identified dietary patterns. Multivariable linear regression models tested associations between CVD risk factors and dietary pattern scores. In multivariable analyses, each unit of increase in the Sweets factor was associated with 0.76 ± 0.33 (mean ± SD) mg/dL higher HDL cholesterol and a 6.2 ± 2.7% increase in HOMA-IR. In contrast, each unit increase in the Fried Noodles factor was associated with a 0.27 ± 0.11 inch greater waist circumference, - 0.89 ± 0.40 mg/dL lower HDL cholesterol, and also a 6.9 ± 2.6% increase in HOMA-IR. Each unit increase in the Vegetables factor was associated with a - 1.40 ± 0.43 mmHg and - 0.95 ± 0.27 mm Hg decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respectively. Dietary patterns are significantly associated with CVD risk factors among Chinese American immigrants in NYC. Future work will inform how dietary patterns relate to level of acculturation in order to guide the development of dietary interventions to reduce CVD risk.

Dietary Characteristics and Influencing Factors on Chinese Immigrants in Canada and the United States: A Scoping Review

“…Three of these studies focused on Chinese women exclusively [ 35 , 48 , 50 ]. Ten (10/51, 19.6%) studies reported that Chinese immigrants in Canada and the United States had a lower daily caloric intake than Caucasians [ 8 , 19 , 21 , 28 , 32 , 34 , 54 , 61 , 63 , 65 ]. Caloric consumption was reported by two studies at 1592 kcal/day and 1736 kcal/day [ 8 , 34 ].…”

“…Ten (10/51, 19.6%) studies reported that Chinese immigrants in Canada and the United States had a lower daily caloric intake than Caucasians [ 8 , 19 , 21 , 28 , 32 , 34 , 54 , 61 , 63 , 65 ]. Caloric consumption was reported by two studies at 1592 kcal/day and 1736 kcal/day [ 8 , 34 ]. The dietary quality of Chinese immigrants was found to be 66.2/110 on the AHEI score, a scale for which values above 80 indicates a good diet and lower than 50 indicates a poor diet [ 19 ].…”

“…Traditional Chinese Medicine emphasizes the nutritional use of foods, herbs, and the concept of humoral balance between hot and cold foods to achieve good, stable health [ 6 , 7 ]. Additionally, the promotion of healthy dietary behaviours in the Chinese immigrant population have been shown to influence cardiovascular risk factors, including HDL cholesterol, blood pressure, and waist circumference, as well as cardiovascular disease incidence [ 8 ]. The impact of dietary factors on health outcomes has been well documented in the existing literature, with dietary and lifestyle behaviours being key to managing a variety of chronic diseases [ 9 ].…”

Associations of reading language preference with muscle strength and physical performance: Findings from the Integrated Women’s Health Programme (IWHP)

“…Among limitations of our study, our restriction to health-seeking subjects may not be generalisable to other populations. Nevertheless, our data may be relevant to health inequalities in Chinese populations in North America [ 53 – 56 ], United Kingdom [ 57 ] and Australia [ 58 ] in whom first- or even second-generation Chinese immigrants may still prefer their native language. Language preferences for Malay and Indian ethnicities were not elicited in our study, because of the small number of participants in these groups.…”

Defining modifiable barriers to uptake of dietary recommendations in Chinese immigrants with type 2 diabetes: a qualitative study

“…Acculturation can increase disease risk because immigrants tend to increase their consumption of fats, sweets, and soft drinks (Pan et al 1999;Lv and Cason 2004), which then increases risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease (Beasley et al 2018). Increased consumption of western and reduced consumption of traditional Chinese foods was commonly reported by Chinese immigrants to the United States (Lv and Cason 2004) necessitated by low availability of affordable traditional Chinese foods (Satia et al 2000).…”