The South Asian population in the United Kingdom has been reported to be at high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. These two chronic diseases are the end result of a condition known as the metabolic syndrome (MS). Although MS and its association to dietary patterns has been reported in various studies, most research has focused on western countries and minority group populations have been overlooked to a great extent. The identification of dietary patterns and other ethnicity associated risk factors is especially relevant to the South Asian population due to their high prevalence of diet-related diseases and their susceptibility to increased risk of co-morbidities. In addition, South Asians present a distinctive metabolic phenotype as well as unique dietary intakes both at home and abroad. Using detailed dietary information collected from a sample of the local South Asian community in Leeds, UK, the objective of this work was to describe the dietary patterns of South Asians and to investigate their association with metabolic syndrome risk factors. Anthropometric data was collected to identify existing MS components. Further, the study aimed to recognize lifestyle risk factors associated to ethnicity including religion, culturally-acceptable physical activity practices and the process of acculturation as time of residency in the UK increases. Related aspects such as education level and income and their link to diet quality were also explored. Finally, comparison was made between the diet and ethnicity associated risk factors for MS in South Asians and the mainstream population in the UK. Although results were in accordance with the existing literature in terms of diet composition, the examination of additional risk factors demonstrates the importance of developing public health prevention strategies tailored to the different minority ethnic groups in the UK's heterogeneous population.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:578657 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Diaz, Sara Diana Garduno |
| Publisher | University of Leeds |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0023 seconds