engleski

Evaluation of diet in Croatian university students with Mediterranean Dietary Quality Index (M-DQI)

Besides evaluating diet quality by nutrient intake, an indexes of diet quality can be used, which is considered a better approach since such indexes enable the evaluation of accordance with dietary patterns regarded as healthy minimizing disease risk. A Mediterranean Dietary Quality Index (M-DQI) evaluates the intake of saturated fatty acids and cholesterol and consumption of meats, olive oil, fish, cereals, and fruit and vegetables. Possible minimum and maximum scores are 0 and 14 respectively, where lower scores indicate higher diet quality. The dietary method used was a completely quantified validated Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Subjects were Croatian university students (n=663) from all 5 Croatian universities (Zagreb, Split, Osijek, Rijeka and Zadar). Both genders were included. The subjects’ age range was 18-30 years (mean age was 21.8 years). The mean M-DQI was 9.6 and differed statistically significant according to gender (9.9 and 9.4 in males and females respectively). The lowest M-DQI was in Zagreb and Rijeka (9.3) and the highest in Osijek (10.4). A statistically significant negative correlation was determined for M-DQI and dietary fiber intake, carbohydrate intake (% kJ) and intake of magnesium, copper, manganese, vitamin C, vitamin B1, folate, and vitamins A, E and K (% DRI). A higher percentage of subjects (33.0 %) had a ‘ ’ poor diet’ ’ , i.e. scores 11-14, than a ‘ ’ healthful diet’ ’ , i.e. scores 0-4 (1.1 %).

M-DQI; FFQ; diet; university students

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