Exploring the Influence of Dietary Interventions on Human Health, Disease, and Behavior (Oral Session 8)

(OR08-07-25) Determine Predictors of Healthy Diet among Individuals with Preclinical Heart Failure

Sunday, June 1, 2025

3:00 PM – 3:12 PM ET

Location: S220 B-D

Presenting Author(s)

Maryam Hashemian, MD, PhD

Staff Scientist
National Heart Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Co-Author(s)

Nicole Farmer, MD

Tenure Track Investigator
NIH Clinical Center
Bethesda, Maryland, United States
JJ

Jungnam Joo

National Heart Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, United States
CH

Clint Hagen

National Heart Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, United States
AG

Amanda Graves

National Heart Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, United States
JR

Justin Rodante

National Heart Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, United States
RR

Rebeka Rafi

National Heart Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, United States
TP

Tiffany Powell-Wiley

National Heart Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, United States
VR

Veronique Roger

National Heart Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, United States

Objectives: Preclinical heart failure (Pre-HF) is an early stage of heart failure (HF) characterized by risk factors and/or subtle cardiac structural or functional abnormalities without clinical symptoms. This is the optimal time to enhance cardiovascular health and prevent progression to HF. A critical component of cardiovascular health is adhering to a healthy diet. We aim to identify individual and sociocultural predictors of a healthy diet among individuals with Pre-HF.

Methods: A sample of 400 Black and White individuals with Pre-HF, aged over 40, was recruited from the YouGov opt-in survey panel. Participants were stratified and recruited by race and economic status, resulting in four groups (100 per group) with low-income respondents defined as a household income below 200% of the federal poverty level. Dietary adherence was evaluated with the Mini-EAT questionnaire, while psychosocial variables and predictors were assessed using validated questionnaires e.g. NHANES and USDA Food Security surveys. Mini-EAT values were compared across levels of the predictor variables using ANOVA with SAS (v9.4).

Results: In this population, Black individuals had lower education, less stress, stronger social connections, and were more likely to reside in urban areas compared to White individuals. The Mini-EAT score showed no significant differences in diet quality between Black and White individuals. Black individuals had higher scores for fish and sweets compared to White individuals. Diet quality varied significantly across different levels of individual factors: education (p <.0001), income (p <.05), employment status (p <.05), food insecurity (p <.0001), health status (p <.001), depression (p <.0001), stress (p <.05), physical activity (p <.0001), nutrition knowledge (p <.05), taste preferences (p <.0001), and overall diet perception (p <.0001), as well as sociocultural factors: social connections (p <.005), time spent cooking (p <.01), and family meal gatherings (p <.05).

Conclusions: The study's design accounted for race and economic status, thereby mitigating their influence observed in prior research. Targeted interventions focused on individual and sociocultural predictors could improve dietary adherence and potentially reduce the progression to clinical HF.

Funding Sources: This research was supported by the Coleman Award from the National Institute of Health (NIH).