Journal
NUTRIENTS
Volume 14, Issue 18, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/nu14183725
Keywords
Mediterranean diet; lifestyle; nutrition; health; dietary plan
Categories
Funding
- Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia
- Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb
- Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb
- Croatian National Science Foundation Project PREDI-COO [IP-2019-04-9308]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Non-communicable diseases (NCD) and lifestyle, particularly diet, are closely related. The study evaluates adherence to the Mediterranean diet and its association with demographic and anthropometric data. The results show that women, residents of coastal areas, older individuals, those with higher education and income, and lower BMI are associated with higher adherence scores. Additionally, a dietary plan following Mediterranean diet principles is found to be cost-effective. These findings provide important insights for encouraging lifestyle changes.
Non-communicable diseases (NCD) and lifestyle, particularly diet, have a close relationship. Based on the recent statistics, Croatian men and women lead in European overweight lists, which implies pessimistic prognosis in terms of incidence and prevalence of NCDs in the future. One of the possible solutions to overcome weight problems is turn to traditional balanced and sustainable diets, such as the Mediterranean diet. In this study, we assessed adherence towards Mediterranean diet using a validated questionnaire in an online survey and associated adherence scores with several demographic and anthropometric data. Based on the results of a validated Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (N = 3326), we assessed the adherence score to be 7.6 +/- 2.5. The score tended to depend on sex, residence, age, education, income, and body mass index (BMI); indeed, women, residents of a coastal part of the country, older volunteers, those possessing a higher education degree, those with higher income, and those with lower BMI were associated with higher scores. As income was one of the significant findings related to higher adherence scores, we developed a dietary plan complying with Mediterranean diet principles that, on average, costed less than the average traditional balanced diet menu. Taken together, this study brought new findings regarding target groups who need to be encouraged to make lifestyle changes, and highlighted the first steps on how to make them.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available