Is there a different dietetic pattern depending on self-knowledge of high blood pressure?

This cross-sectional study describes the dietary pattern seen at recruitment in a large Spanish cohort comprising 41,451 people (aged 30-69 years) according to high blood-pressure status. We provide information on adjusted mean daily intake of foods and nutrients, by means of a dietary history, from those people self-reported as having high blood pressure as well as from those self-reported as normotensive but having, after actual blood-pressure measurement, systolic or diastolic blood pressures of > or = 160/95 mmHg. Although with small differences in mean intake people who self-reported high blood pressure have a higher consumption of potatoes, vegetables, vitamin C and E; furthermore, men reported an increased intake of fruit, meat, fish, proteins, dietary fibre, beta-carotene and alcohol, and women tended to consume less alcohol, lipids and cholesterol but more proteins, carbohydrates and dietary fibre. Almost no differences are found in fatty acid intake. This pattern is reversed among those self-reported as normotensive but with high blood pressure after actual measurement. We conclude that in this large prospective cohort, awareness or not of having high blood pressure at recruitment is associated with a differential dietary pattern.