A total of 1934 adolescents (boys 47.5%, mean age [standard variation] 12.7[0.6] years) enrolled voluntarily. Participants completed a validated questionnaire on atopic disease status, dietary habits, and other sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics. KIDMED score was used for the evaluation of adherence to the MedDiet. Discriminant analysis was applied to the hierarchy of foods and beverages consumed in relation to the presence of atopic diseases.
Results:
Logistic regression analyses revealed that adolescents with moderate and good adher-ence to the MedDiet had 34 and 60% lower odds of having any asthma symptoms, respectively, and 20 and 41% lower odds of having any allergic rhinitis symptoms, respectively, adjusted for several confounders. The food group with the most important contribution to the MedDiet was cooked and raw vegetables, followed by fruits (Wilks λ = 0.881 and λ = 0.957, respectively).
Conclusion:
Our study provided evidence for a strong and inverse association between the level of adherence to the MedDiet and the occurrence of asthma and allergic rhinitis symp-toms and signified the importance of contribution of fruits and vegetableconsumption in this association. Thus, the promotion of MedDiet could be an efficient lifestyle intervention that can contribute to the reduction of the burden of these atopic diseases in adolescents (AU)