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
Multicenter Study
. 2019 Feb 20;19(1):37.
doi: 10.1186/s12874-018-0655-y.

Aims, design and preliminary findings of the Hellenic National Nutrition and Health Survey (HNNHS)

Emmanuella Magriplis  1 , Ioannis Dimakopoulos  1 , Dimitra Karageorgou  1 , Anastasia-Vasiliki Mitsopoulou  1 , Ioanna Bakogianni  1 , Renata Micha  1   2 , George Michas  1   3 , Triantafyllia Ntouroupi  1 , Sophia-Maria Tsaniklidou  1 , Kostantina Argyri  1 , George Danezis  1 , Constantinos Georgiou  1 , Demosthenes B Panagiotakos  4 , Antonis Zampelas  5 ; HNNHS Contributors; HNNHS Advisory Committee
Collaborators, Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Aims, design and preliminary findings of the Hellenic National Nutrition and Health Survey (HNNHS)

Emmanuella Magriplis et al. BMC Med Res Methodol. .

Abstract

Background: The aim of the Hellenic National Nutrition and Health Survey was to assess nutritional intake, health status and various behaviors in a representative sample of the Greek population.

Methods: Data collection took place from 01.09.2013 to 31.05.2015. Random stratified sampling was performed by (a) geographical density criteria of Greece (7 regions), (b) age group of the reference population (< 19, 20-64 and > 65 years) and (c) gender distribution. The final population enrolled included (throughout Greece), 4574 individuals (42.5% men; 57.5% women of who 47.2% were from Athens metropolitan area, 18.5% from Central Macedonia, and the remaining 34% almost equally scattered throughout the country (p for the comparisons with official statistics by region, age group and sex > 0.7). Questionnaires developed were based on extensive review of the literature, following a validation procedure when necessary.

Results: Preliminary analyses revealed that 32% of the adult population were overweight and 15.5% were obese, with significant gender differences in total and per age group (p < 0.001, for all). The majority of the adult population reported being active smokers (50.4%) or regular alcohol consumers (72.4%); with significant gender differences (p < 0.001, for all). Prevalence of hyperlipidemia was 16.7%, cardiovascular disease 13.9%, hypertension 13.3%, thyroid disease 13.8%, and Diabetes Mellitus 3.6%. Significant gender and age group differences were found in various diseases.

Conclusions: Study's preliminary results provide valuable information about the Hellenic population's health. Findings from this survey could be used to detect disease risk factors for public health prevention policies and programs.

Keywords: Cross-sectional study; Diet; Greece; Nutrition survey/ methods; Public health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition of the Agricultural University of Athens. It was also approved by Hellenic Data Protection Authority. All members of staff signed confidentiality agreements and all participants, as well as the parent/ guardian when required, were asked to sign a consent form.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Professor Demosthenes Panagiotakos, co-author of this paper, serves as a Section Editor of the BMRM Journal.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

References

    1. Mozaffarian D, Fahimi S, Singh GM, Micha R, Khatibzadeh S, Engell RE, Lim S, Danaei G, Ezzati M, Powles J. Global sodium consumption and death from cardiovascular causes. N Engl J Med. 2014;371(7):624–634. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1304127. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wing RR, Bolin P, Brancati FL, Bray GA, Clark JM, Coday M, Crow RS, Curtis JM, Egan CM, Espeland MA, et al. Cardiovascular effects of intensive lifestyle intervention in type 2 diabetes. N Engl J Med. 2013;369(2):145–154. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1212914. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sacks FM, Svetkey LP, Vollmer WM, Appel LJ, Bray GA, Harsha D, Obarzanek E, Conlin PR, Miller ER, 3rd, Simons-Morton DG, et al. Effects on blood pressure of reduced dietary sodium and the dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet. DASH-sodium collaborative research group. N Engl J Med. 2001;344(1):3–10. doi: 10.1056/NEJM200101043440101. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lim SS, Vos T, Flaxman AD, Danaei G, Shibuya K, Adair-Rohani H, Amann M, Anderson HR, Andrews KG, Aryee M, et al. A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2010. Lancet. 2012;380(9859):2224–2260. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61766-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Micha R, Khatibzadeh S, Shi P, Fahimi S, Lim S, Andrews KG, Engell RE, Powles J, Ezzati M, Mozaffarian D. Global, regional, and national consumption levels of dietary fats and oils in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis including 266 country-specific nutrition surveys. BMJ. 2014;g2272:348. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources