[Do the Spanish university students follow Mediterranean dietary patterns?]. / ¿Siguen patrones de dieta Mediterránea los universitarios Españoles?

OBJECTIVE: To determine the pattern of food intake among the students of the University of Alicante (UA) by the level of adherence to the Mediterranean diet. METHODS: Descriptive trans-sectional study estimating the individual intake by means of a questionnaire of food intake frequency (QFIF) in a representative sample of 380 college students. STUDY VARIABLES: age, gender, geographical area of origin, self-communicated weight and height; types and intake frequencies of the foods included in the QFIF. The percentage of adherence was calculated taking into account the actual intake and the intake recommended in the guideline of traditional Mediterranean diet: 100 x servings consumed/recommended servings. We established 5 ranges of percentage of adherence: optimal intake (80%-119%), acceptable intake (60%-79%), deficient intake (40%-59%), very deficient intake (< 39%), excessive intake (> 120%). We analyzed the differences in proportions distribution and the Student's t test with EPIDAT 3.1 and SPSS 15.0. RESULTS: The prevalence of overweight/obesity is higher in men (34.6%) than in women (9.8%), p < 0.001, whereas women had higher prevalence of low weight (7.0%) than men (0.7%), p < 0.05. The consumption of grains and derivatives was very deficient (women = 90.6; men = 94.9) whereas the intake of red meats (women = 90.6; men = 92.7) and cold meats (women = 95.9%, men = 96.3%) was excessive. No student had an "optimal intake" or an "acceptable intake" of all the dietary groups (n = 12). DISCUSSION: The educational level and access to the information do not protect the university population from socio-environmental factors that have an influence on their dietary habits. The public health strategies focused on this population group should be strengthen.

[Spanish diet quality according to the healthy eating index]. / Calidad de la dieta española según el índice de alimentación saludable.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the quality of the Spanish diet by means of the Healthy Feeding Index (IASE) and its relationship with geographical and socioeconomic variables. METHODS: Cross-sectional descriptive study from the National Heath Questionnaire 2006 (ENS-2006). 29,478 people answering the Frequency of Consumption Questionnaire (CFC) were studied (women = 15,019; men =14,459). The IASE comprises 10 variables (grains and derivatives, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, meats, legumes, cold-processed meats, sweets, beverages, and diet-variety) constructed from the CFC and the recommendations of the Feeding Guidelines (Spanish Society of Community Nutrition 2004). The IASE categories (maximum score: 100) were: healthy feeding > 80 points; Need-for-change > 5,080; Little healthy, 50. A descriptive analysis was performed with differences of the means (Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests), and the Chi-square test to study the independency of the variables such as age, gender, social class, and educational level with the IASE categories. RESULTS: 72% of the whole sample needs changes in their feeding patterns. The mean score for women was 73.7 ± 10.5 and for men 69.9 ± 11.3 (p < 0.001). Among the healthy category, the age group > 65 years and women obtain higher percentage (38.8% and 28.3%, respectively) in comparison to men (18.4%). Besides, the higher the social class the higher the healthy diet index will be (class-I: 24.4%, class-II: 25.0%, class-III: 25.8%) (p < 0.001). The Autonomous Communities from Valencia (5.4%), Balearic Islands (4.6%) and Andalusia (4.3%) are the ones presenting the highest index of little healthy feeding. CONCLUSIONS: The IASE is a rapid and cheap method to estimate the quality of the diet in the population since it uses secondary data coming from the ENS and the feeding guidelines. It is useful to planning the nutritional policies in Spain.