The association of inflammatory potential of diet and height status among adolescent girls: a cross-sectional study in the west of Iran in 2018–2019

Although the important role of systemic inflammation in growth retardation has been specified, to date, no study has been conducted to survey the association between height status and dietary inflammatory index (DII). Therefore, we aimed to identify the relationship between DII and height, height-for-age z-score, and bone age among adolescent girls. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 342 adolescent girls in the west of Iran. The usual dietary intake was collected using a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). The DII assigns protective scores to dietary factors with anti-inflammatory properties. For assessment of linear growth, we assessed bone age using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) as well as height and z-score height for age. The mean age and weight (SD) of participants was 12.68 (0.61) years and 43.83 (11.57) kg, respectively. After adjusting for potential confounders, the significant difference between means of height ( P -value = 0.020) and bone age ( P -value = 0.033) across quartiles of DII was observed. Linear regression analysis indicated the inverse relation between DII score and height (β: -1.77, 95% CI: -3.15, -0.40, P = 0.011), and a marginal association between z-score height-for-(β: -0.18, 95% CI: -0.37, 0.001, P = 0.051) and bone age (β: -0.15, 95% CI: -0.32, 0.006, P = 0.059). In summary, the study identified an inverse association between pro-inflammatory food consumption and linear growth among adolescent girls. Promoting dietary plans that emphasize anti-inflammatory foods could potentially enhance linear growth in this population. Further research in this area is recommended.