Introduction & Objective: To determine if adults in Puerto Rico improved cardiometabolic risk factors on a 4-months culturally-tailored Mediterranean-like intervention (vs. standard nutritional advice).

Methods: The Puerto Rican Optimized Mediterranean-like Diet (PROMED) parallel pilot trial randomized 44 adults (25-65y) in Puerto Rico with at least 2 cardiometabolic risk factors to either an intervention (individual nutritional advice for a portion-controlled Mediterranean diet adapted for Puerto Ricans and a supply of vegetable oils and legumes for 2 months) or control group (standard portion-control nutritional advice and cooking utensils). Daily text messages emphasized each group’s nutritional advice for 4 months. Clinical assessments were done at baseline, 2 months, and 4 months. Mean changes per protocol (n=15 intervention; n=13 control) were estimated for the primary outcome of a cardiometabolic improvement score (range 0-10; higher score denotes more improved factors) and secondary outcomes.

Results: At 2 and 4 months, the cardiometabolic improvement score increased from baseline for the intervention (mean±SD: 2.0±1.4 and 1.8±1.5 points) and control groups (1.1±1.5 and 1.1±1.6 points), with no significant differences between groups. At 4 months, the intervention vs. control group had significantly greater decrease in systolic (-8.8±8.5 vs. 5.4±9.2 mmHg; p=0.02) and diastolic blood pressure (-4.4±5.4 vs. 2.7±2.9 mmHg; p= 0.02), non-significant greater decrease in waist circumference (-2.54±2.51 vs. 0.03±0.23 cm; p=0.16) and depressive symptoms score (-8.3±10.2 vs. -0.56±0.8 points; p=0.24), and non-significant greater increase in diet quality score (1.8±2.7 vs. 1.3±2.4 points; p=0.11) at 4 months. Study satisfaction was >90% at 2 months at 100% at 4 months.

Conclusion: PROMED was efficacious in decreasing blood pressure in 4 months. The program’s potential of improving cardiometabolic health and high satisfaction supports its enhancement.

Disclosure

J. Mattei: None. C. Cheng: None. J.F. Rodriguez: None.

Funding

American Diabetes Association (11-22-ICTSN-33); NIH-National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (R01-MD018750)

© 2024 by the American Diabetes Association
2024
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