Association between Nutritional Awareness and Diet Quality: Evidence from the Observation of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Luxembourg (ORISCAV-LUX) Study

Nutrients

Ala𠆚 Alkerwi²  Nicolas Sauvageot²  Leoné Malan¹  Nitin Shivappa³ 

[1] Hypertension in Africa Research Team (HART), North-West University, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa; E-Mail:;Luxembourg Institute of Health L.I.H. (formerly Centre de Recherche Public Santé), Centre d’Etudes en Santé, 1A Rue Thomas Edison, L-1445 Strassen, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg; E-Mail:;Cancer Prevention and Control Program, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA; E-Mails:

关键词: nutritional awareness;    diet quality;    socio-economic status;    dietary energy density;    food diversity;   

DOI  :  10.3390/nu7042823

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This study examined the association between nutritional awareness and diet quality, as indicated by energy density, dietary diversity and adequacy to achieve dietary recommendations, while considering the potentially important role of socioeconomic status (SES). Data were derived from 1351 subjects, aged 18–69 years and enrolled in the ORISCAV-LUX study. Energy density score (EDS), dietary diversity score (DDS) and Recommendation Compliance Index (RCI) were calculated based on data derived from a food frequency questionnaire. Nutritional awareness was defined as self-perception of the importance assigned to eating balanced meals, and classified as high, moderate, or of little importance. Initially, a General Linear Model was fit that adjusted for age, sex, country of birth, and body mass index (BMI). Furthermore, simultaneous contributions to diet quality of individual-level socioeconomic factors, education, and household income were examined across levels of nutritional awareness. Attributing high importance was associated inversely with energy density (p = 0.02), positively with both dietary diversity (p < 0.0001), and adequacy to dietary recommendations (p < 0.0001), independent of demographic factors, weight status and SES. Further adjustment for household income in the EDS-related multivariable model, reduced the β coefficient by 47% for the “moderate importance” category and 36% for the “high importance” category. Likewise, the β coefficient decreased by 13.6% and 10.7% in the DDS-related model, and by 12.5%, and 7.1% in the RCI-related model, respectively, across awareness categories. Nutritional awareness has a direct effect on diet quality, with a minor component of variance explained by improved income. The impact of nutritional awareness on diet quality seems to be a promising area for both health promotion and health policy research.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.