Indices of diet quality as a tool for integrated assessment of dietary intake

Abstract

The review presents an analysis of the construction and properties of indices of diet quality (IDQ), developed in different countries and known under different names: Diet quality index (DQI), Healthy eating index (HEI,) and other names. The analysis of the data on three directions of research on validation of IDQ - correlation with its components (internal validation), association with risk assessments of morbidity and mortality, and association with biomarkers of nutritional status and risk of noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCD), which strongly indicate the possibility of IDQ as a tool for epidemiological studies of the relationship of nutrition, nutritional status and health has been submitted. Analysis of the composition of various types of IDQ allowed to formulate general principles of their development (construction). IDQ are based on recommendations for healthy nutrition of the population and assess the degree of commitment of the population to adhere to the recommendations. The design of the IDQ should be applicable to all categories of the population, regardless of gender, age (older than 2 years), national and regional characteristics of nutrition of the population, which allows a comparative assessment of the diet quality of different categories of the population. IDQ focus on the assessment of four main aspects of a healthy diet: food diversity, adequacy of consumption of adequacy of consumption of major groups or some subgroups of the most valuable foods, moderation and balance of the diet. All IDQ consist of two groups of indicators-components: indicators of adequacy of food consumption and indicators of consumption of critically important food factors, the consumption of which should be limited, i.e. indicators of risk factors of NCD. The standard values of adequacy of consumption of both groups of indicators should be expressed in the «density» of consumption of foods and nutrients per 1000 calories or as a percentage of the total calorie intake. Based on these principles, it is planned to develop and evaluate the reliability and objectivity of IDQ according to the study of the dietary intake of Russian population.