Abstract
BACKGROUND: From a health promotion perspective, the use of dietary indices is preferred above single nutrients and foods to evaluate diet quality. Longitudinal research about the association between dietary indices and respectively anthropometric parameters and blood lipids is lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal association between three dietary indices (Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI), Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) and Diet Quality Index (DQI)) and respectively anthropometric parameters and blood lipids. METHODS: A three day diet record was completed by 373 men and 197 women in 2002-2004 and 2012-2014. HEI, MDS and DQI were calculated. Waist circumference (WC) and Body Mass Index (BMI) were used as anthropometric parameters. A linear regression analysis was performed to investigate associations between changes in dietary indices and changes in respectively anthropometric parameters and blood lipids, adjusted for potential confounders. RESULTS: Only in men an increase in all three dietary indices was associated with a decrease in WC and BMI in the non-adjusted analysis and for HEI and DQI also in the adjusted analysis. No longitudinal associations were found between dietary indices and blood lipids both in men and women. CONCLUSIONS: Only few associations were found between dietary indices and anthropometric parameters, whilst no associations were found with blood lipids. An increase in dietary indices was associated with an improvement in anthropometric parameters only in men. As this is the first study investigating associations between changes in dietary indices and changes in respectively anthropometric parameters and blood lipids, further research is needed to evaluate these possible associations.