Abstract
The objective of this study was to compare the quality of overall dietary intake of US adolescents by self-rated health status. Using 2 nonconsecutive days of dietary recall data and responses to a single question describing self-rated health status from the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals 1994-1996, linear regression analysis was used to detect differences in Healthy Eating Index (HEI) scores by self-rated health status for 1,504 adolescents, ages 11 to 18 years. After adjusting for factors related to both overall dietary quality and self-rated health status, overall HEI scores did not differ by self-reported health status. However, two individual HEI component scores were found to be significantly related to adolescent self-rated health status: the vegetables score ( P=0.01) was higher among those with positive self-rated health status, and the total fat score ( P=0.01) was higher among those with negative self-rated health status. Self-perception of health status is not related to the overall quality of the adolescent diet; therefore, food and nutrition professionals should focus on understanding motivators other than health status when exploring adolescent dietary behaviors.
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