The association between eating frequency and cardiovascular health

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death globally. Many researches have examined the potential relationship between Cardiovascular Disease and dietary behavior. Although several studies have shown that increased eating frequency is associated with lower risk for CVD or CVD mortality, there are still some limitations in previous studies, and the relationship between eating frequency and cardiovascular health (CVH) remains inconsistent. Cardiovascular Health(CVH) was evaluated by Cardiovascular Health Metrics proposed by the American Heart. Eating frequency were extracted from 24h dietary recall from NHANES 2017-2018. Fisher's test and linear regression analysis were conducted to examine the association between CVH Metrics and Eating Frequency. Covariates such as education level, sleeping hours and age were included in our regression analysis. Data were analyzed in R studio. The positive association between eating frequency and CVH score is significant (P=0.01). Compared to persons who ate 1-4 times per day, the CVH score of persons who ate more than five times is 0.63 units higher. The association between eating frequency and CVH score is still statistically significant after adjusting with covariates like age, gender, race, sleeping hours(p =0.02). The results indicated that eating frequency is positively associated with Cardiovascular Health. Eating 5-6 meals per day is more beneficial to cardiovascular health than eating 1-4 meals per day. In addition, the association between eating frequency and cardiovascular health should be viewed as a combined effect of the components of CVH metrics. Age is another crucial factor that negatively affects Cardiovascular health. More research with larger sample size is needed to foster the association between eating frequency and CVH metrics.