Author/Authors :
Azadbakht, Leila Department of Community Nutrition - School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics - Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran , Akbari, Fahime Food Security Research Center - Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran , Qorbani, Mostafa Department of Public Health - Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran , Motlagh, Mohammad Esmaeil Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine - Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran , Ardalan, Gelayol Department of Pediatrics - Child Growth and Development Research Center - Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non- Communicable Disease - Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran , Heshmat, Ramin Epidemiology Department - Chronic Diseases Research Center - Endocrinology& Metabolism Research Institute - Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran , Daneshzad, Elnaz Department of Community Nutrition - School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics - Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran , Kelishadi, Roya Department of Pediatrics - Child Growth and Development Research Center - Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non- Communicable Disease - Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
Abstract :
Introduction: This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the association between cardiovascular
disease (CVD) risk factors and dinner consumption in a nationally representative sample of
Iranian adolescents.
Methods: The present study was conducted on 5642 adolescents aged 10-18 years old in 27
provinces in Iran. The subjects were included applying by multistage random cluster sampling.
Participants who ate ≥5 dinners during a week were considered as a dinner consumer.
Results: Among 5642 subjects, 1412 (25%) did not consume dinner. Dinner consumers were less
likely to be overweight or obese (P < 0.001) and abdominally obese (P < 0.001) as well as to have
an abnormal level of HDL-C (P = 0.02). Dinner skipper youths had a higher risk for overweight or
obesity (odds ratio [OR]: 1.62; 95% CI: 1.39-1.89) and abdominal obesity (OR: 1.59; 95% CI: 1.36-
1.85) which remained significant after adjusting confounding factors (P <0001). No relationship
was observed between dinner consumption and the rest of the CVD risk factors, neither in crude
nor in adjusted models. A higher proportion of dinner-consumer adolescents had no CVD risk
factors in comparison to dinner-skipper subjects (31.1% vs. 28%).
Conclusion: Eating dinner might be inversely associated with some CVD risk factors among
Iranian adolescents. Further prospective studies will need to prove this theory.
