23 Advanced Statistical Approaches to Dietary Intervention in Pediatric Cardiovascular Health

Oregon Convention Center 

Background: The Dietary Intervention Study in Children (DISC) clinical trial was designed to shed light on pediatric cardiovascular health's response to interventions over three years.We re-analyzed the original data using advanced statistical methods.Objectives: We aimed to reassess DISC data with linear mixed-effects models and splines, examine treatment effects across subgroup and analyze compliance effect on dietary outcomes.Results: Employing B-splines, effectively minimized the AIC for LDL analysis.The intervention lowered the average LDL by -2.32 (p-value: 0.027).Increased attendance at intervention sessions was significantly associated with a reduction in fat intake (p<0.0001).This effect varied by gender, being less pronounced in girls(p : 0.003).Furthermore, children from families with higher parental education and marital stability were more likely to attend sessions, subsequently influencing dietary outcomes(p-values:0.044, 0.017).Conclusions: Our reanalysis highlights the importance of adherence in pediatric dietary interventions for cardiovascular health. It reveals gender differences and sociodemographic impacts, suggesting tailored dietary strategies are needed.

Dietary Intervention


Pediatric Cardiovascular Health


Linear Mixed Effects Models

Spline Models

Compliance Analysis 

Section on Statistics in Epidemiology