Rapid, Digital Dietary Assessment in Association with Cardiometabolic Biomarkers

Abstract

Purpose To examine the associations between dietary intake as assessed by a rapid, image-based digital tool and biomarkers of cardiometabolic health. Design Retrospective analysis of adults with blood biomarkers performed by Boston Heart Diagnostics (BHD) between December 2020 and March 2022. Setting Outpatient centers serviced by BHD. Subjects 546 adults, excluding those taking relevant medications and/or supplements known to affect blood test results. Measures Laboratory assays of blood specimens were performed by Boston Heart Diagnostics. Nutrient intake and diet quality data were obtained using Diet Quality Photo Navigation (DQPN®; US Patent #11,328,810 B2) technique via Diet ID™ tool. Analysis Pearson correlation coefficients (for continuous variables) and Spearman coefficients (for ordinal variables) were used to evaluate associations between nutrient intake data and laboratory data for the full study sample. Two-sided P-values < .05 were considered statistically significant. Results Both continuous and ordinal measures of diet quality correlated significantly with HDL-C and triglycerides (n = 485; P < .0 01); with hs-CRP (n = 441; P < .001); with HgbA1c (n = 345; P < .01); with fasting insulin (n = 372; P < .001); and with HOMA-IR (n = 319; P < .001). Conclusion Findings affirm that rapid, digital diet quality and composition assessment by pattern recognition rather than recall tracks significantly with key biomarkers of cardiometabolic health.