Abstract
The Dietary Guideline Index, a measure of diet quality, was updated to reflect the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines. This paper describes the revision of the index (DGI-2013) and examines its use in older adults. The DGI-2013 consists of 13 components reflecting food-based daily intake recommendations of the Australian Dietary Guidelines. In this cross-sectional study, the DGI-2013 score was calculated using dietary data collected via an 111-item food frequency questionnaire and additional food-related behaviour questions. The DGI-2013 score was examined in Australian adults (aged 55–65 years; n = 1667 men; 1801 women) according to sociodemographics, health-related behaviours and BMI. Women scored higher than men on the total DGI-2013 and all components except for dairy. Those who were from a rural area (men only), working full-time (men only), with lower education, smoked, did not meet physical activity guidelines, and who had a higher BMI, scored lower on the DGI-2013, highlighting a group of older adults at risk of poor health. The DGI-2013 is a tool for assessing compliance with the Australian Dietary Guidelines. We demonstrated associations between diet quality and a range of participant characteristics, consistent with previous literature. This suggests that the DGI-2013 continues to demonstrate convergent validity, consistent with the original Dietary Guideline Index.
Highlights
The Dietary Guideline Index (DGI) [1] is a comprehensive food-based diet quality index that reflects adherence to the Dietary Guidelines for Australian Adults [2,3]
Older adults are an understudied population in nutrition, research suggests that poor diet quality among this population is associated with reduced quality of life [10,11], increased cardiometabolic risk [4,12], and increased risk of mortality [13]
The results indicated that those with a lower DGI-2013 were more likely to be from rural areas, working full-time, have achieved a lower level of education, smoked, not meeting the physical activity guidelines and have a higher body mass index (BMI) (Table 4)
Summary
The Dietary Guideline Index (DGI) [1] is a comprehensive food-based diet quality index that reflects adherence to the Dietary Guidelines for Australian Adults [2,3]. Dietary Guideline Index score has been associated with reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and obesity [4,5], and people with a higher score have demonstrated less weight gain over 15 years compared to those with a lower score [6]. Older adults are an understudied population in nutrition, research suggests that poor diet quality among this population is associated with reduced quality of life [10,11], increased cardiometabolic risk [4,12], and increased risk of mortality [13]
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