Association of Dietary Flavonoid Intake with Prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Korean Women Aged ≥30 Years

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between dietary flavonoid intake and the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among Korean women aged 30 y. This study used data collected from the 2007-2012 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We excluded subjects who had energy intake <500 kcal or >= 5,000 kcal, were diagnosed with chronic disease, were taking medication, or were pregnant or lactating. The final subjects included 7,963 women, and they were divided into 2 groups, the normal fasting glucose (NFG) group (n=7,738) and the T2DM group (n=225). The intake of flavonoids was estimated on the basis of the flavonoid database. After adjustment for confounding factors, the mean intakes of fruits, anthocyanidins, and flavones were significantly lower in the T2DM group than in the NFG group. In multiple regression analysis, the dietary flavone intake was negatively associated with systolic blood pressure, triglyceride, TG/HDL-cholesterol, and homesostatic model assessment of insulin resistance. Daily intake of flavones above the 25th percentile was associated with a lower prevalence of T2DM compared with intake below the 25th percentile (OR=0.593, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.414-0.847). These study results showed that dietary flavone intake may have some beneficial effects in reducing CVD risks and prevalence of T2DM in Korean women.