The Association Between Diet Quality and Fasting Blood Glucose in People Living with HIV (P08-051-19)

Abstract

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to examine the association between diet quality (utilizing Healthy Eating Index-2010 [HEI-2010] total scores) and fasting blood glucose in people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV). The associations between refined grains and total fruit consumption (HEI-2010 component scores) and fasting blood glucose were also explored. MethodsThis was a cross-sectional analysis (N = 191) of an existing dataset from the Cardiovascular Assessment Risk Examination (CARE) study at Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA between 2007 and 2013. It was hypothesized that there would be no association between diet quality and fasting blood glucose. Multiple linear regression was used to test the hypothesis adjusting for several a priori variables (age, race, sex, employment status, use of highly active antiretroviral therapy [HAART], living situation, body mass index, family history of type 2 diabetes [T2D] and year of enrollment). ResultsThe mean age of the subjects was 41.1 years (SD = 7.1 years). Approximately half were white (50.8%, n = 97) and the majority were male (74.9%, n = 143). Subjects had a mean total HEI-2010 score of 49.3 out of 100 possible points with a range of 10–88 points. This is indicative of poor diet quality in this sample of PLHIV. Total protein foods and refined grains represented the component scores with the highest median scores (5.0 out of 5 possible points and 7.6 out of 10 possible points, respectively). Components with low median scores were total fruit (1.6 out of 5 possible points), whole fruit (1.4 out of 5 possible points), greens & beans (0.9 out of 5 possible points) and whole grains (1.5 out of 10 possible points). No significant associations were found between total HEI-2010 score and fasting blood glucose. No significant associations were found between the refined grains HEI-2010 component score or total fruit HEI-2010 component score and fasting blood glucose. ConclusionsOverall diet quality was low in this study and the hypothesis of no association between diet quality and fasting blood glucose was supported. Additional studies are needed to determine the relationship between diet quality and fasting blood glucose in PLHIV and how to improve diet quality in this population. Funding SourcesThe CARE study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01HL065947).