An Index of Diet and Eating Patterns Is a Valid Measure of Diet Quality in an Australian Population1,
Open accessAbstract
Diet indices represent an integrated approach to assessing eating patterns and behaviors. The aim of this study was to develop a comprehensive food-based dietary index to reflect adherence to healthy eating recommendations, evaluate the construct validity of the index using nutrient intakes, and evaluate this index in relation to sociodemographic factors, health behaviors, risk factors, and self-assessed health status. Data were analyzed from adult participants of the Australian National Nutrition Survey who completed a 108-item FFQ and a food habits questionnaire (n = 8220). The dietary guideline index (DGI) consisted of 15 items reflecting the dietary guidelines, including dietary indicators of vegetables and legumes, fruit, total cereals, meat and alternatives, total dairy, beverages, sodium, saturated fat, alcoholic beverages, and added sugars. Diet quality was incorporated using indicators relating to whole-grain cereals, lean meat, reduced/low fat dairy, and dietary variety. We investigated associations between the DGI score, sociodemographic factors, health behaviors, chronic disease risk factors, and nutrient intakes. We found associations between the DGI scores and sex, age, income, area-level socioeconomic disadvantage, smoking, physical activity, waist:hip ratio, systolic blood pressure (males only), and self-assessed health status (females only) (all P < 0.05). Higher DGI scores were associated with lower intakes of energy, total fat, and saturated fat and higher intakes of fiber, beta-carotene, vitamin C, folate, calcium, and iron (P < 0.05). This food-based dietary index is able to discriminate across a variety of sociodemographic factors, health behaviors, and self-assessed health and reflects intakes of key nutrients.
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Both depressive and anxiety disorders contribute to weight gain.
“both depressive and anxiety disorders were found to contribute to weight gain (McNaughton et al., 2008; Strine et al., 2008; Kivimaki et al., 2009)”
From The Mediating Role of Psychological Inflexibility in the Relationship Between Anxiety, Depression, and Emotional Eating in Adult Individuals With Obesity (2022) · cites this paper as McNaughton et al., 2008
The Discussion (page unavailable) addresses diet quality, BMI and self-reported health, but does not discuss depressive or anxiety disorders as contributors to weight gain. A search of our copy for depressive and anxiety disorders and related mental-health terms found no passage supporting that claim. (LLM, conf=0.75)
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- Authors
- McNaughton, S. A., Ball, K., Crawford, D., & Mishra, G. D.
- Affiliations
- Deakin University (AU)
- The Royal Free Hospital (GB)
- Corresponding author
- McNaughton, Sarah A.
- Venue
- The Journal of Nutrition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2008-01
- Volume
- 138
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 86-93
- ISSN
- 0022-3166 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2100295769
- Cited by
- 319
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 12.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Deakin Research Online (Deakin University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Heart Foundation of Australia
- Medical Research Council
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutritional Studies and Diet
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Nutrition, Health, and Society Studies
- Keywords
- dietary index, diet quality, dietary guidelines, construct validity, nutrient intake, dietary habits, sociodemographic factors, health behavior, chronic disease risk factors, self-rated health, food frequency questionnaire, dietary diversity
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Australia, Diet, Dietary Carbohydrates, Dietary Fats, Dietary Proteins, Feeding Behavior, Female, Food, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Nutrition Surveys, Surveys and Questionnaires, Socioeconomic Factors, Nutrition Assessment
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