Longitudinal study on the association between three dietary indices, anthropometric parameters and blood lipids.

Evelien Mertens,Inge Huybrechts,Ruben Charlier,Benedicte Deforche,Johan Lefevre,Sara Knaeps,Patrick Mullie,Peter Clarys

doi:10.1186/s12986-015-0042-1

Abstract

BackgroundFrom a health promotion perspective, the use of dietary indices is preferred above single nutrients and foods to evaluate diet quality. Longitudinal research about the association between dietary indices and respectively anthropometric parameters and blood lipids is lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal association between three dietary indices (Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI), Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) and Diet Quality Index (DQI)) and respectively anthropometric parameters and blood lipids.MethodsA three day diet record was completed by 373 men and 197 women in 2002–2004 and 2012–2014. HEI, MDS and DQI were calculated. Waist circumference (WC) and Body Mass Index (BMI) were used as anthropometric parameters. A linear regression analysis was performed to investigate associations between changes in dietary indices and changes in respectively anthropometric parameters and blood lipids, adjusted for potential confounders.ResultsOnly in men an increase in all three dietary indices was associated with a decrease in WC and BMI in the non-adjusted analysis and for HEI and DQI also in the adjusted analysis. No longitudinal associations were found between dietary indices and blood lipids both in men and women.ConclusionsOnly few associations were found between dietary indices and anthropometric parameters, whilst no associations were found with blood lipids. An increase in dietary indices was associated with an improvement in anthropometric parameters only in men. As this is the first study investigating associations between changes in dietary indices and changes in respectively anthropometric parameters and blood lipids, further research is needed to evaluate these possible associations.

Highlights

From a health promotion perspective, the use of dietary indices is preferred above single nutrients and foods to evaluate diet quality
The present study focused on three dietary indices, namely the Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI) [6], the Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) [7] and the Diet Quality Index (DQI) [8]
waist circumference (WC), Body Mass Index (BMI), ratio total/HDL cholesterol, DQI and HEI significantly increased with increasing age, while VO2peak, HDL cholesterol and actual smokers significantly decreased

Summary

Introduction

From a health promotion perspective, the use of dietary indices is preferred above single nutrients and foods to evaluate diet quality. Longitudinal research about the association between dietary indices and respectively anthropometric parameters and blood lipids is lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal association between three dietary indices (Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI), Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) and Diet Quality Index (DQI)) and respectively anthropometric parameters and blood lipids. The use of dietary indices as a measure of diet quality has emerged to be a preferred approach to study the relation between nutrition and chronic diseases, since food is mostly consumed in combination rather than separately and interactions between nutrients are possible [4, 5]. The Diet Quality Index (DQI) evaluates the adherence to Flemish food-based dietary guidelines [8]. The HEI and the DQI are calculated by comparing the participants’ dietary intake with prior defined guidelines, while the MDS uses collected data to obtain genderspecific median component intakes

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