Dinner consumption and cardiovascular disease risk factors among a nationally representative sample of Iranian adolescents: the CASPIAN-III Study.

Introduction: This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the association between cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and dinner consumption in a nationally representative sample of Iranian adolescents. Methods: The present study was conducted on 5642 adolescents aged 10-18 years old in 27 provinces in Iran. The subjects were included applying by multistage random cluster sampling. Participants who ate ≥5 dinners during a week were considered as a dinner consumer. Results: Among 5642 subjects, 1412 (25%) did not consume dinner. Dinner consumers were less likely to be overweight or obese (P < 0.001) and abdominally obese (P < 0.001) as well as to have an abnormal level of HDL-C (P = 0.02). Dinner skipper youths had a higher risk for overweight or obesity (odds ratio [OR]: 1.62; 95% CI: 1.39-1.89) and abdominal obesity (OR: 1.59; 95% CI: 1.36-1.85) which remained significant after adjusting confounding factors (P <0001). No relationship was observed between dinner consumption and the rest of the CVD risk factors, neither in crude nor in adjusted models. A higher proportion of dinner-consumer adolescents had no CVD risk factors in comparison to dinner-skipper subjects (31.1% vs. 28%). Conclusion: Eating dinner might be inversely associated with some CVD risk factors among Iranian adolescents. Further prospective studies will need to prove this theory.

Diet quality among Iranian adolescents needs improvement.

OBJECTIVE: Diet in adolescence is important not only because of adolescents' rapid growth but also due to its influence on future chronic diseases. On the other hand, dietary quality indices are noteworthy and useful approaches to evaluate dietary intakes. Thus the present study was conducted to assess dietary quality indices in adolescents. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. Settings The data were collected from schools in Isfahan, Iran. SUBJECTS: Female students (n 265) aged 11-13 years were enrolled using systematic cluster-random sampling in Isfahan (Iran). Dietary intakes were assessed by a validated FFQ. Diet quality indices including dietary diversity score (DDS), the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and mean adequacy ratio (MAR) across ten nutrients were calculated. RESULTS: Mean DDS, HEI score and MAR were 6.15 (sd 1.61) out of 10 points, 63.90 (sd 19.86) out of 100 points and 1.32 (sd 0.61), respectively. Mean nutrient adequacy ratio of all nutrients was above 1 except for vitamin D (0.53 (sd 0.51)). Those in the highest tertile of DDS had the most favourable anthropometric variables in comparison to the lowest tertile. There were no significant associations between HEI score and BMI, central or abdominal obesity and blood pressure. Those in the highest tertile of MAR had higher BMI, waist circumference and hip circumference. CONCLUSIONS: Diet quality of Isfahani adolescents needs improvement. It may imply the necessity of implementing nutritional instructive policies in this age group and their parents.

A systematic review on diet quality among Iranian youth: focusing on reports from Tehran and Isfahan.

BACKGROUND: Lifestyle and dietary pattern in adolescence and young adulthood not only affect the general state of health in these years, but also leave long-term effects. Due to the importance of diet in youth, this systematic review summarized observational studies representing dietary intakes among Iranian adolescents and young adults. METHODS: PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases were searched up to September 2013 using keywords related to diet, youth and Iran. Relevant papers were identified through applying a series of exclusion criteria in screening steps. Data were tabulated in 4 tables according to the level of assessed dietary exposure including energy or nutrients, foods or food groups, diet quality indices or dietary patterns, and dietary habits. RESULTS: Out of 1348 retrieved papers, 17 papers were eligible to enter this systematic review. Most studies were conducted in Tehran and Isfahan. Totally, 13113 individual were studied including 7327 girls and 5785 boys aged 10 to 28 years. Receiving lower or higher energy than required resulted in two burdens of malnutrition. Fiber intake was nearly half of the recommended amounts. Among micronutrients, calcium, phosphorus, folate and iron had the most common insufficient intakes. The youth consumed low whole grain, fruits, vegetables, dairy and unsaturated fatty acids and low diverse diet. Skipping breakfast was rife. Eating fast foods and unhealthy snacks was another prevalent inappropriate dietary habit. CONCLUSION: Dietary intakes and habits of young people are not favorable. Implementing informative programs and developing practical policies should be noted to improve the diet quality of adolescents and young adults.