Better Diet Quality Linked to Lower Blood Pressure in Treated Hypertension in the Peruvian Andes

Adults with hypertension living in Puno, a high-altitude city in the Peruvian Andes, generally eat diets of low quality, and among those who know they have hypertension and are receiving treatment, better diet quality is associated with lower systolic blood pressure, according to a cross-sectional analysis published in PLOS Global Public Health.

Researchers led by Carla Tarazona-Meza and colleagues analyzed baseline data from an ongoing community health worker-led trial aimed at improving hypertension management in the region.

Diet was assessed with 24-hour recalls, which the team scored using the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS), a metric ranging from 0 to 49 in which higher scores indicate better diet quality. Participants were then grouped into quartiles of diet quality. Blood pressure was measured with a digital oscillometric tensiometer.

The participants had a mean age of 66.5 years, with a standard deviation of 10.9 years, and 51.9 percent were female. The overall mean GDQS was 15.7 points, with a standard deviation of 3.4, which the authors describe as generally low diet quality.

In the full sample, multivariable linear regression adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, food security status, hypertension awareness and treatment, body mass index, HbA1c, and lifestyle habits found no statistically significant association between diet quality and blood pressure.

However, when the analysis was restricted to the 102 participants who were aware of their hypertension and were receiving treatment, a different pattern emerged. Across GDQS quartiles, higher diet quality was associated with lower systolic blood pressure, with an adjusted mean difference of -4.13 mmHg comparing across quartiles (95 percent confidence interval: -7.72 to -0.53; p-trend = 0.03).

The authors note that a better understanding of dietary profiles in high-altitude populations with hypertension could help improve the effectiveness of interventions, since diet quality plays an important role in the management of non-communicable diseases including hypertension.

Several limitations should be kept in mind. The study is cross-sectional, so it captures a single point in time and cannot establish that improving diet quality lowers blood pressure; the association observed in the treated subgroup does not demonstrate causation. The findings come from baseline data of a single trial in one high-altitude Peruvian setting, and the subgroup result was not significant in the overall sample, so the result should be interpreted with caution until confirmed by longitudinal or experimental evidence.

Subject of Research: Diet quality and its association with blood pressure among adults with hypertension in a high-altitude region of Peru

Article Title: Diet quality and blood pressure among adults with hypertension living in a high-altitude region of the Peruvian Andes

Article References: Tarazona-Meza, C., Matsuzaki, M., Williams, K. N., Caulfield, L. E., Bromage, S., Cordova-Ascona, L., Underhill, L. J., de las Fuentes, L., Cuentas-Canal, G. M., Vela-Clavo, Z., Chiang, M., Geng, E. H., Dávila-Román, V. G., Hartinger, S. M., & Checkley, W. (2026). Diet quality and blood pressure among adults with hypertension living in a high-altitude region of the Peruvian Andes. PLOS Global Public Health, 6(10), e0007396. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0007396

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0007396

Keywords: hypertension, diet quality, Global Diet Quality Score, blood pressure, Peru, Andes, high altitude, cross-sectional study, public health, nutrition, Puno, cardiovascular health