Association Between Diet Quality and Abdominal Obesity in Postmenopausal Women With Overweight and Obesity

Objectives: Determine the association between diet quality and abdominal adiposity among postmenopausal women with overweight and obesity. Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a subset of participants (n=105) in the Minnesota Green Tea Trial classified at enrollment as overweight or obese (BMI = 25 - 40kg/m2) who had complete health history, dietary intake, anthropometrics, and body composition data. Dietary intake data from a 124-item validated food frequency questionnaire was used to calculate the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2015 scores which measured diet quality. Abdominal adiposity was assessed with wait-to-hip ratio (WHR), and dual X-ray absorptiometry scan estimated visceral adipose tissue (VAT) mass and VAT volume. Adjusting for covariates, general linear regression model analyzed the associations between total HEI-2015 score and WHR, VAT mass, and VAT volume. Results: Mean (±SD) age was 60.35 (±4.94) years, the majority of participants were white (96.20%), non-Hispanic (99.04%) and had some college or higher level of education (68.60%). Median (IQR) VAT mass, VAT volume and WHR were 0.97 kg (0.57, 1.33), 1,019.00 cm3 (595.00, 1,412.50) and 0.86 (0.83, 0.91). Abdominal obesity classified as WHR ≥ 0.85 was found in 61.90% of participants. Mean (±SD) total HEI-2015 score was 71.65 (±7.32) out of 100. The study sample achieved maximum HEI-2015 component scores for whole fruits, total vegetables, greens and beans, and refined grains which were the main contributors to their total score. A significant inverse association was observed between total HEI-2015 score and VAT mass (β = -0.015, 95% CI: -0.029, -0.002, P = 0.029) in the unadjusted model, however, no significant associations were found between total HEI-2015 score and WHR, VAT mass and VAT volume after adjusting for demographic, dietary intake, and lifestyle characteristics. Conclusions: In our study sample of postmenopausal women with overweight and obesity whose diet quality was characterized as high in fruits, vegetables, greens and beans and low in refined grains, no significant associations were observed between total HEI-2015 score and WHR, VAT mass, or VAT volume. Funding Sources: No funding was received for this study; National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (Grant R01 CA127236) funded the parent trial.