Table 4. Comparison of dietary intake and food groups across the tertiles of the DASH diet .

Variables	DASH diet			P value fortrend a	P value for comparison T1&T2 b	P value for comparison T1&T3 b	P value for comparisonT2&T3 b
	T1 (n = 108)	T2 (n= 101)	T3 (n =95)
NARs of different nutrients
Zinc (mg)	1.14 ± 0.43c	1.12 ± 0.44	1.05 ± 0.49	0.333	0.371	0.141	0.307
Iron (mg)	0.90 ± 0.30	0.88 ± 0.28	0.87 ± 0.37	0.705	0.710	0.514	0.771
Calcium (mg)	0.95 ± 0.37	1.04 ± 0.39	1.00 ± 0.45	0.294	0.305	0.440	0.613
Vitamin C (mg)	1.73 ± 0.90	1.80 ± 0.99	1.86 ± 1.11	0.641	0.550	0.601	0.634
Vitamin D (IU)	0.0028 ± 0.0025	0.0026 ± 0.0022	0.0026 ± 0.0025	0.915	0.905	0.911	0.952
Vitamin B3 (mg)	1.65 ± 0.53	1.55 ± 0.54	1.48 ± 0.64	0.090	0.084	0.112	0.096
Vitamin B12 (mcg)	1.75 ± 0.93	1.68 ± 1.01	1.56 ± 0.89	0.375	0.441	0.515	0.564
Vitamin B2 (mg)	1.81 ± 0.69	1.85 ± 0.69	1.78 ± 0.75	0.791	0.811	0.783	0.841
Vitamin B6 (mg)	0.13 ± 0.05	0.12 ± 0.049	0.12 ± 0.05	0.501	0.615	0.664	0.710
Vitamin A (RAE)	1.71 ± 0.97	1.91 ± 1.29	2.00 ± 1.63	0.605	0.554	0.540	0.701

DASH, dietary approach to stop hypertension; NAR, nutrient adequacy ratio.

^a ANCOVA test for variables (adjusted for energy intake) and <0.05 is significant.

^b Tukey test; ^c Mean± SD.