Objective:

To determine adherence to the Mediterranean diet of hypertensive patients in primary care and to analyze its associated factors. To check if there are differences between those that show adequate control of blood pressure and those who do not.

Design:

Observational cross-sectional study.

Location:

Primary Care consultations of five health centers in two health areas of Castilla-La Mancha.

Participants:

387 adult subjects diagnosed with hypertension were selected.

Main measures:

We collected information about sociodemographic variables, health problems (CIAP-2), drug consumption, adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (Questionnaire MEDAS-14), physical activity (short IPAQ), cardiovascular risk factors, cardiovascular risk, blood pressure and its degree of control.

Results:

The level of compliance with the Mediterranean diet was high in 17.8 % of cases, moderate in 68.2 % and low in 14.0 %. 53 % showed adequate control of BP; in these cases the average adherence score was significantly higher (8.94 vs. 8.41; p=0.012). Using multiple linear regression, variables associated with higher adherence to the Mediterranean Diet were: older age (B: 0.042), lower score in Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) (B: -0.085), no physical inactivity for more than two consecutive hours/day (B: -0.530), higher social class (I-V) (B: 0.568), higher number of antihypertensive drugs consumed (B: 0.2012) and adequate control of blood pressure (B: 0.444).

Conclusions:

Most hypertensive patients reported at least moderate compliance to the Mediterranean diet, although only a few indicated a high adherence. In addition, we show superior diet compliance in hypertensive patients with controlled blood pressure values. We also show that the variables associated with greater compliance to the Mediterranean diet include some sociodemographic characteristics and other cardiovascular-related characteristics.

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