Diet quality in association to lipidaemic profile in adults of families at high-risk for type 2 diabetes in Europe: The Feel4Diabetes study

Background and aims: The role of diet in blood lipids is scarcely investigated in adults at risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and even less studied regarding their socioeconomic status (SES). This study aimed to investigate the associations of diet quality with blood lipids in adults from families at high-risk for developing T2DM from six European countries, considering their SES. Methods and results: In total 2049 adults (67% women) from relatively low-SES regions and high T2DM risk families were enrolled. Dietary habits, sedentary behaviour and sociodemographic characteristics were assessed using standardised questionnaires. The associations of tertiles of healthy diet score (HDS) with blood lipids were tested by univariate analysis of variance (UNIANOVA). HDL-Cholesterol (HDL-C) was positively (B 1.54 95%CI 0.08 to 2.99) and LDL-Cholesterol (LDL-C) (B −4.15 95%CI −7.82 to −0.48), ratio of total cholesterol to HDL-C (B −0.24 95%CI −0.37 to −0.10), ratio of LDL-C to HDL-C (B −0.18 95%CI −0.28 to −0.08) and Atherogenic Index of Plasma (B −0.03 95%CI −0.06 to 0.00) inversely associated with the highest tertile of diet score compared to the lowest tertile independently of age, sex, Body Mass Index, total screen time and smoking. In sub-analysis of education (