Development of a diet quality index assessing adherence to the Swedish nutrition recommendations and dietary guidelines in the Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort

• Published in: Public health nutrition Vol. 14; no. 5; pp. 835 - 845
• Main Authors: Drake, Isabel, Gullberg, Bo, Ericson, Ulrika, Sonestedt, Emily, Nilsson, Jan, Wallström, Peter, Hedblad, Bo, Wirfält, Elisabet
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.05.2011; CABI Pub. on behalf of the Nutrition Society
• Subjects: Age Distribution; Alcohol use; Assessment and methodology; Cancer; Chronic illnesses; Cohort Studies; Community Participation; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data collection; diabetes; Diet; Diet - standards; diet history; Diet Surveys; Dietary fiber; Dietary Guidelines; Disease; education; Epidemiology; Exercise; Exercise - physiology; Female; fish; folic acid; Food; food intake; Fruits; Guidelines as Topic; Health Sciences; Humans; Hälsovetenskap; Life Style; lifestyle; Lifestyles; Male; Medical and Health Sciences; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; men; Middle Aged; Nutrition and Dietetics; Nutrition Assessment; Nutrition Policy; Nutrition research; nutritional adequacy; Näringslära; physical activity; polyunsaturated fatty acids; Questionnaires; Shellfish; Smoking - epidemiology; Socioeconomic Factors; socioeconomic status; Socioeconomics; sucrose; Surveys and Questionnaires; Sweden; Vegetables; Vitamin D; women; Womens health; Sweden; ANE, Sweden; Nutrition recommendations; Pattern; Score; Index; Diet
• ISSN: 1368-9800; 1475-2727; 1475-2727
• DOI: 10.1017/S1368980010003848

Objective To develop a diet quality index (DQI) that assesses adherence to the Swedish nutrition recommendations (SNR) and the Swedish dietary guidelines (SDG). Design A cross-sectional study within the Malmö Diet and Cancer (MDC) cohort. A diet history method collected dietary data, a structured questionnaire lifestyle and socio-economic information, and anthropometric data were collected by direct measurements. The index (DQI-SNR) included six components: SFA, PUFA, fish and shellfish, dietary fibre, fruit and vegetables, and sucrose. Setting Malmö, Sweden. Subjects Men (n 4525) and women (n 8491) of the MDC cohort enrolled from September 1994 to October 1996. Results For participants with high DQI-SNR scores, nutrient and food intakes were close to recommendations. However, most of the study population exceeded the recommended intake for SFA (98 %) and few reached recommended intakes for dietary fibre (24 %), fruit and vegetables (32 %), vitamin D (18 %) and folate (2 %). A high DQI-SNR score was positively associated with age, physical activity, not smoking, past food habit change, education and socio-economic status. Individuals with high scores were more likely to have a diabetes diagnosis or experienced a cardiovascular event. Conclusions Results suggest that the DQI-SNR is a useful tool for assessing adherence to the SNR 2005 and the SDG in the MDC cohort. No index has previously been developed with the aim of evaluating adherence to the current dietary recommendations