Dietary Patterns and Obesity Risk Among Adults in Mongolia

Obesity is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. In Mongolia, cardiovascular diseases have consistently been the leading cause of death since 1995. However, there is a lack of study on the relationship between diet and nutritional risk factors of chronic disease among Mongolians. The purpose of this study was to identify major dietary patterns of the Mongolian adults and to examine the dietary patterns as risk factor of overweight and obesity. The cross - sectional study of 420 healthy Mongolian men and women aged 25 years and over was conducted in urban and rural province of Mongolia. The study findings suggest that public health efforts in Mongolia should be targeted at population subgroups in order to address prevailing specific aspects of the Transitional and Traditional dietary patterns, which were found to be associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease.