Diet quality – what is it and does it matter?

Measures of diet quality have evolved with a number of scoring indices currently in use. They are increasingly being used to examine epidemiological associations between dietary intake and nutrition-related health outcomes. The present review aims to describe current diet quality tools and their app...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public health nutrition Vol. 12; no. 12; pp. 2473 - 2492
Main Authors: Wirt, Annika, Collins, Clare E
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.12.2009
Subjects:
adults
Biomarkers
Cancer
cardiovascular diseases
Cardiovascular Diseases - epidemiology
Cardiovascular Diseases - mortality
Cause of Death
Cholesterol
Chronic illnesses
Diet
Diet - standards
Diet diversity score
Diet quality
Diet variety
Dietary guidelines
Disease
epidemiology
Food
Food groups
food intake
Health risks
health status
High density lipoprotein
Humans
Longitudinal studies
Medical Subject Headings-MeSH
men
Morbidity
Mortality
neoplasms
Neoplasms - epidemiology
Neoplasms - mortality
Nutrients
Nutrition Assessment
Nutrition Policy
Nutrition research
nutritional adequacy
Public Health
Public Health - standards
Review
risk assessment
Validation studies
women
United States > US
Review
Diet quality
Diet diversity score
Mortality
Diet variety
ISSN:1368-9800, 1475-2727, 1475-2727
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Measures of diet quality have evolved with a number of scoring indices currently in use. They are increasingly being used to examine epidemiological associations between dietary intake and nutrition-related health outcomes. The present review aims to describe current diet quality tools and their applications, and to examine the relationship between diet quality and morbidity and mortality. A search was conducted of MEDLINE, Cochrane, EMBASE, CINAHL and ProQuest electronic databases. Inclusion criteria were: English language; published from 2004 on; conducted in adult populations; longitudinal/cohort/case-control or cross-sectional study; included a theoretically defined measure of diet quality. A total of twenty-five indices of overall diet quality and/or variety were found, with components ranging from nutrients only to adherence to recommended food group servings, to variety within healthful food groups. The majority of studies reviewed had methodological weaknesses but demonstrated that higher dietary quality was consistently inversely related to all-cause mortality, with a protective effect of moderate magnitude. The associations were stronger for men and for all-cause and CVD mortality. The limitations of both the indices and the studies that use them need to be considered when interpreting and comparing results. However, diet quality indices do appear to be able to quantify risk of some health outcomes, including biomarkers of disease and risk of CVD, some cancers and mortality. Further research is needed to improve the validity of these tools and to adapt them for use in clinical dietetic practice.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/6GQ-WNHJ8TQ9-N
istex:1AB3AD11FA66BFFDC9AAFF4F166A5378C90D1EE7
ArticleID:00531
PII:S136898000900531X
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ObjectType-Article-2
ObjectType-Feature-1
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ObjectType-Review-3
ISSN:1368-9800
1475-2727
1475-2727
DOI:10.1017/S136898000900531X