Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Mar;18(4):615-21.
doi: 10.1017/S1368980014000767. Epub 2014 May 12.

Diet quality among Iranian adolescents needs improvement

Leila Azadbakht  1 , Fahime Akbari  1 , Ahmad Esmaillzadeh  1
Affiliations

Diet quality among Iranian adolescents needs improvement

Leila Azadbakht et al. Public Health Nutr. 2015 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: Diet in adolescence is important not only because of adolescents' rapid growth but also due to its influence on future chronic diseases. On the other hand, dietary quality indices are noteworthy and useful approaches to evaluate dietary intakes. Thus the present study was conducted to assess dietary quality indices in adolescents.

Design: Cross-sectional. Settings The data were collected from schools in Isfahan, Iran.

Subjects: Female students (n 265) aged 11-13 years were enrolled using systematic cluster-random sampling in Isfahan (Iran). Dietary intakes were assessed by a validated FFQ. Diet quality indices including dietary diversity score (DDS), the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and mean adequacy ratio (MAR) across ten nutrients were calculated.

Results: Mean DDS, HEI score and MAR were 6.15 (sd 1.61) out of 10 points, 63.90 (sd 19.86) out of 100 points and 1.32 (sd 0.61), respectively. Mean nutrient adequacy ratio of all nutrients was above 1 except for vitamin D (0.53 (sd 0.51)). Those in the highest tertile of DDS had the most favourable anthropometric variables in comparison to the lowest tertile. There were no significant associations between HEI score and BMI, central or abdominal obesity and blood pressure. Those in the highest tertile of MAR had higher BMI, waist circumference and hip circumference.

Conclusions: Diet quality of Isfahani adolescents needs improvement. It may imply the necessity of implementing nutritional instructive policies in this age group and their parents.

Keywords: Healthy Eating Index.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. World Health Organization (2011) Adolescent nutrition: a neglected dimension. https://apps.who.int/nut/ado.htm (accessed September 2011).
    1. Stang J & Story M (editors) (2005) Guidelines for Adolescent Nutrition Services. Minneapolis, MN: Center for Leadership, Education and Training in Maternal and Child Nutrition, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota.
    1. Delisle H (2005) Nutrition in Adolescence – Issues and Challenges for the Health Sector. Geneva: WHO.
    1. Krinke U (2002) Adult nutrition. In Nutrition Through the Life Cycle, pp. 383–407 [J Brown, editor]. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
    1. Serdula MK, Ivery D, Coates RJ et al. (1993) Do obese children become obese adults? A review of the literature. Prev Med 22, 167–177. - PubMed

Publication types