Dietary management of adult hypertension by the duration of its diagnosis (628.10)

Abstract

This research focuses on dietary behaviors for hypertension management which emphasize the importance of healthy eating such as nutrition intake and food choices. These modifiable dietary behaviors can explain a large part of chronic disease morbidity and mortality at all ages in men and women. The study examines whether age at hypertension diagnosis is associated with nutrition intakes and food availability at home. With new data availability about age at hypertension diagnosis in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) since 2007, the pooled four repeated cross‐sectional waves of NHANES from 2007‐2010 are used (n=4,287). For the empirical models, the study employs seemingly unrelated probit regression to estimate the dietary choices of individuals with hypertension based on the time since diagnosis. We hypothesize that more recent diagnoses of hypertension provide individuals with hypertension an incentive to engage in better dietary behaviors and healthier food availability at home, such as lower total caloric intake and a greater presence of fruits and vegetables at home. Furthermore, we hypothesize that individuals’ compliance with a diet can decline as time living with a disease diagnosis increases. That is, the shorter the elapsed time since diagnosis of hypertension, diagnosed individuals will be more likely to respond positively with changes in dietary behaviors. Since the long term change in dietary behaviors is known to be challenging, newly diagnosed individuals may be more willing to engage in healthier diets. This study will provide that the effect of the duration of diagnosed hypertension on modifying diet can better address hypertension management. Considering the cost of poor dietary behaviors is higher for individuals with hypertension, it is important to understand the time varying effect of their dietary compliance as a key indicator of the recommended hypertension management.