A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ON DIETARY APPROACHES TO STOP HYPERTENSION (DASH) TO CONTROL RAISED BLOOD PRESSURE AMONG HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS

Introduction: Hypertension is a widely recognized public health problem worldwide. Its further complications lead to cardiovascular diseases, stroke, retinal and renal diseases. DASH diet has been recommended to control raised blood pressure among hypertensive patients. However; limited evidence exists for it in Asian countries. This study aimed to review published research articles on DASH diet for hypertension control. Methods: Studies on hypertension and DASH diet (N=54) were searched using PubMed Central from 2012 to 2019 including all countries. The search strategy consisted of keywords "hypertension OR raised blood pressure OR blood pressure" and "Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension OR DASH diet". Whereas; no limitation was used for searching the literature and further references of the relevant studies were also analyzed. Full text articles of 31 researches were retrieved and analyzed for this review article. Results: Findings of this review suggests that DASH diet is significantly effective in lowering the blood pressure as well as for prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). In addition, a low-sodium diet is beneficial for individuals and hypertensive patients in reducing CVD related events. However; evidence suggests that adherence to DASH diet for a longer duration is effective along with lifestyle modifications in the population. Conclusion: Consuming a DASH diet as recommended can be a useful preventive measure to reduce blood pressure. Country-specific dietary recommendations are thus required. DASH diet along with pharmacological therapy and lifestyle modifications are proven to be effective. Further, longitudinal studies establishing temporal associations between consumption of DASH diet and its effect on blood pressure will be essential for clinical and public health practice.