Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2025 Jan 14;25(1):149.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-21299-1.

Association between Mediterranean diet and metabolic health status among adults was not mediated through serum adropin levels

Maryam Shafiei  1   2 , Donya Poursalehi  1   2 , Sobhan Mohammadi  3 , Farnaz Shahdadian  4 , Zahra Hajhashemy  1   2 , Parisa Rouhani  5 , Elahe Mokhtari  6 , Parvane Saneei  7
Affiliations
Observational Study

Association between Mediterranean diet and metabolic health status among adults was not mediated through serum adropin levels

Maryam Shafiei et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Prevalence of metabolic disorders has been increased in recent years around the world. The relationship between Mediterranean diet (MD) with metabolic health status and serum adropin levels has been less examined in Iranian adults. We investigated the association between MD compliance with metabolic health status and adropin hormone in Iranian adults.

Methods: This observational study was conducted on 527 men and women. Food intakes were evaluated by a validated food frequency questionnaire. Blood pressure and anthropometric parameters were measured. Fasting blood samples were drawn to measure serum adropin concentrations, blood glucose, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high sensitive C-reactive protein and insulin. Metabolic unhealthy (MU) status was defined as having ≥ 2 cardio-metabolic risk factors.

Results: After adjustments for potential confounders, subjects in highest versus lowest tertile of MD had 52% lower odds of MU status (OR = 0.48, 95%CI: 0.23-0.97). Stratified analysis revealed a significant association in normal-weight participants (OR = 0.12; 95%CI: 0.02-0.64), but not in those with overweight/obesity (OR = 0.66, 95%CI: 0.27-1.57). By excluding each component of MD, the association disappeared, except for three components (vegetables, nuts and grains). MD adherence was not significantly related to serum adropin levels in multivariable-adjusted model (unstandardized B= -0.19, 95%CI: -4.97, 4.59; P = 0.94). Serum adropin hormone levels were also not substantially different among metabolic healthy versus unhealthy subjects (P = 0.66).

Conclusions: This cross-sectional study showed an inverse association between adherence to MD and odds of MU status, especially in subjects with normal-weight. Serum adropin concentrations were not associated with MD adherence or metabolic health status.

Keywords: Adropin; Adults; Mediterranean diet; Metabolic health status.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical approval and consent to participate: All participants provided an informed written consent. In order to ensure ethical compliance, the researchers got informed consent from the parents of the minor participants included in the study. The protocol of study was in accordance with the ethical principles established in the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki. The study protocol was approved by the local Ethics Committee of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: None of the authors had any personal or financial conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Prevalence of metabolically unhealthy status across tertiles of Mediterranean dietary scores (MDS) among the study population. (A) Metabolically unhealthy prevalence in participants with normal weight. (B) Metabolically unhealthy prevalence in participants with overweight or obesity
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mean and standard deviation (SD) of adropin levels of participants with different metabolic status profiles (healthy versus unhealthy)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lee S-H, Yang HK, Ha H-S, Lee J-H, Kwon H-S, Park Y-M, Yim H-W, Kang M-I, Lee W-C, Son H-Y. Changes in metabolic health status over time and risk of developing type 2 diabetes: a prospective cohort study. Medicine 2015, 94(40). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hameed I, Masoodi SR, Mir SA, Nabi M, Ghazanfar K, Ganai BA. Type 2 diabetes mellitus: from a metabolic disorder to an inflammatory condition. World J Diabetes. 2015;6(4):598. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhang X. NAFLD related-HCC: the relationship with metabolic disorders. Obes Fat Liver Liver Cancer 2018:55–62. - PubMed
    1. Deshpande RP, Sharma S, Watabe K. The confounders of cancer immunotherapy: roles of lifestyle, metabolic disorders and sociological factors. Cancers. 2020;12(10):2983. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Schulze MB. Metabolic health in normal-weight and obese individuals. Diabetologia. 2019;62(4):558–66. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources