Relationship of select macronutrient consumption with arterial stiffness in law enforcement officers

Introduction: Law enforcement officers (LEOs) have higher arterial stiffness, a marker of cardiovascular health that indicates an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, compared to the general population. One major contributor may be poor dietary habits as LEOs often have increased consumption of alcohol and calorically dense processed foods compared to the general population. Recent evidence in young adults has demonstrated a relationship between arterial stiffness and diets consisting of increased consumption of alcohol, percentage of calories from alcohol, dietary fat, trans fatty acid, monosaturated fatty acids and saturated fatty acids. Thus, this study aimed to explore if arterial stiffness correlated with these macronutrients in LEOs. Purpose: To test the hypothesis that consumption of alcohol, calories from alcohol, dietary fat, trans fatty acid, monounsaturated fatty acids and saturated fatty acids are associated with increased arterial stiffness in LEOs. Methods: 58 male LEOs (38±8yr, 94.8±17.0kg, body fat = 22.5±5.8%) completed body composition and carotid-femoral pulse-wave velocity (PWV) measurements. Participants completed the National Institute of Health Dietary History Questionnaire, recalling dietary patterns of the previous year. Dietary patterns were translated into a Healthy Eating Index (HEI) score based on United States Dietary Guidelines. Diet*Calc Analysis Program (National Cancer Institute, Silver Spring, MD, USA) completed nutritional calculations. Pearson product correlation data presented as r and p-value. Multiple linear regression analysis assessed the relationships of multiple variables on PWV. Results: LEOs had an average PWV of 6.72±1.42 m/s and a total HEI of 60±13. There were no correlations between PWV and the HEI total score (r = -0.108, p = 0.420), consumption of alcohol (r = -0.091, p = 0.498), percentage of calories from alcohol (r = -0.000, p = 0.999), dietary fat (r = 0.117, p = 0.383), trans fatty acids (r = -0.148, p = 0.268), monounsaturated fatty acid (r = -0.229, p = 0.085), or saturated fatty acids (r = -0.135, p = 0.314). Regression analysis with the predictor variables of dietary fats, monounsaturated fatty acids, and saturated fatty acids significantly predicted PWV (R 2 = 0.155, F (3,54) = 3.29, p = 0.027). Conclusion: There was no correlation with hypothesized macronutrients and arterial stiffness in LEOs. When assessing multiple variables, a diet higher in fat explained some of the variance in PWV. Further investigation to other dietary variables are needed to better understand the relationship between diet and arterial stiffness in LEOs. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.