Nutrition knowledge, diet quality and hypertension
The relationship between nutrition knowledge and diet quality is evident
in Fig. 2, showing significant positive trends between nutrition
knowledge scores and diet quality (DASH score) for each of the four
domains (p b 0.001).
In multivariate analysis adjusted for age, gender and energy intake,
employees in the highest nutrition knowledge quintile had a higher
overall DASH score (p for trend b 0.001) (Table 3). Employees in this
quintile only consumed the recommended servings for vegetables
(4.82 (SD, 2.9), p for trend b 0.001) and did not meet the recommendations
forwhole grains, fruit, legumes and low-fat dairy foods. Nevertheless,
employees in this group also had the lowest consumption of
red processed meat, sweetened snacks and beverages and salty snacks
(p for trend b 0.05). All quintiles exceeded the recommended sodium
consumption of 2300 mg.
Inverse associations with nutrition knowledge and blood pressure
were evident in Table 4. Between the lowest nutrition knowledge quintile
and the highest quintile, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood
pressure differed by 2.2 mm Hg and 2.1 mm Hg respectively. The proportion
of hypertensive employees also differed by 16.1%.
For the mediation analysis, nutrition knowledge was directly associated
with hypertension (β = −0.02 (CI = 0.97–1.0), p b 0.05).
Nutrition knowledge was positively associated with the DASH score
(β=0.09 (CI=0.07–0.11), p b 0.001). The DASH score was associated