Objectives: This study aimed to examine the most
important demographic and socioeconomic factors
associated with diet quality, evaluated in terms of
compliance with national dietary recommendations,
selection of healthy and unhealthy food choices,
energy density and food variety. We hypothesised that
different demographic and socioeconomic factors may
show disparate associations with diet quality.
Study design: A nationwide, cross-sectional,
population-based study.
Participants: A total of 1352 apparently healthy and
non-institutionalised subjects, aged 18–69 years,
participated in the Observation of Cardiovascular Risk
Factors in Luxembourg (ORISCAV-LUX) study in 2007–
2008. The participants attended the nearest study
centre after a telephone appointment, and were
interviewed by trained research staff.
Outcome measures: Diet quality as measured by 5
dietary indicators, namely, recommendation compliance
index (RCI), recommended foods score (RFS), nonrecommended
foods score (non-RFS), energy density
score (EDS), and dietary diversity score (DDS). The
novel Correlated Component Regression (CCR)
technique was used to determine the importance and
magnitude of the association of each socioeconomic
factor with diet quality, in a global analytic approach.
Results: Increasing age, being male and living below
the poverty threshold were predominant factors
associated with eating a high energy density diet.
Education level was an important factor associated with
healthy and adequate food choices, whereas economic
resources were predominant factors associated with
food diversity and energy density.
Conclusions: Multiple demographic and
socioeconomic circumstances were associated with
different diet quality indicators. Efforts to improve diet
quality for high-risk groups need an important public
health focus. |
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