Adherence to a healthy lifestyle and a DASH-style diet and risk of hypertension in Chinese individuals.

Several modifiable risk factors have been shown to lower blood pressure, but little is known about their combined risk in Chinese individuals. In this prospective cohort study, we followed 2751 subjects aged 18-60 years in the China Health and Nutrition Survey who were free of diagnosed hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes or cancer at baseline in 2000. The associations between each of the risk factors and the risk of developing incident hypertension were analyzed by gender. The three low-risk factors for hypertension were a body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 24, a moderate or heavy physical activity level ⩾0.5 h per day and a high score on the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet. Low-risk factors were combined to assess their effects on the risk of hypertension. During the 11-year follow-up, we documented 1147 cases of hypertension. Three risk factors were independently associated with the risk of hypertension even after adjustment for age, alcohol intake and smoking status. Adopting all three low-risk lifestyle factors (normal BMI, DASH-style diet and physical activity) could prevent 38% (95% confidence interval (CI), 19-53%) of new hypertension cases among women and 43% (95% CI, 25-57%) of new hypertension cases among men. Adherence to a healthy lifestyle and a DASH-style diet was associated with a lower risk of hypertension.