Association of dairy intake frequency with left ventricular hypertrophy in childhood

Objective: To examine the association between dairy intake frequency and left ventricular hypertrophy(LVH) in childhood. Methods: Data were obtained from Huantai Childhood Cardiovascular Health Cohort study in Huantai County, Zibo City, Shandong Province. A convenient cluster sampling method was used to conduct a baseline survey on 1 515 children aged 6-11 years old in a primary school from November 2017 to January 2018. A total of 1 237 children who had complete data on questionnaire, physical, ultrasound and laboratory examinations were included for analysis. The frequency of dairy intake was divided into five groups (never,≤3 times/month, 1-2 times/week, 3-5 times/week and nearly every day). Multivariate linear regression models and chi-square trend test were used to examine the trend in level of LVMI and prevalence of LVH, respectively. With the increase of dairy intake frequency, and multivariate logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between dairy intake frequencies and LVH in childhood. Results: The age of children was (8.4±1.6) years, and the number of boys was 655 (53.0%). There was no significant difference in LVMI levels among different frequencies of dairy intake (P>0.05). With the increase of dairy intake frequencies, the level of LVMI and the prevalence of LVH decreased significantly (P for trend<0.05). After the adjustment of potential covariates, compared with no dairy intake group, children who consumed dairy products 1-2 times/week (OR=0.27, 95%CI:0.09-0.82), 3-5 times/week (OR=0.33, 95%CI:0.12-0.91) and almost every day (OR=0.22, 95%CI:0.09-0.54) had a lower risk of LVH. Conclusion: Dairy intake frequency is associated with LVH in childhood, and children who consume dairy products frequently (more than once a week) are less likely to have LVH.