THE DIETARY VARIETY SCORE - ASSESSING DIET QUALITY IN HEALTHY-YOUNG AND OLDER ADULTS

Objective To develop a new dietary variety score (DVS) and link it to other measures of diet quality, including a modified diet quality inde x (DQI). Subjects The subjects were 24 healthy young (ages 20 to 30 ye ars) and 24 healthy older (ages 60 to 75 years) adults, including 24 m en and 24 women. Their dietary intake assessments were based on one 24 -hour food recall interview and 14 consecutive days of food records. D esign and measures Energy and nutrient intakes were estimated using Nu tritionist IV software. DVS was based on the cumulative number of diff erent foods consumed over the 15-day period. DQI was a 5-point scale b ased on conformity with the key US dietary recommendations. Full score nas awarded for diets deriving 30% or less of energy from fat, 10% or less of energy from saturated fat, more than 50% of energy from carbo hydrate, and containing less than 300 mg cholesterol and 2, 400 mg sod ium per day. Analytic measures included analyses of variance, correlat ion analyses, and chi(2) tests. Results Older subjects consumed more v aried diets than did young subjects. Higher DVS values were linked pos itively to vitamin C intakes and negatively to the consumption of salt , sugar, and saturated fat. However, a high DVS was not linked to a hi gh score on the DQI in this subject sample. Discussion/conclusions Few studies have addressed the issue of how many: different Foods constit ute a varied diet. The present classification scheme offers a new way of assessing dietary variety at the individual or group level. Measure s of dietary variety may represent an additional facet of diet quality and their relationship to selected health outcomes should be examined further.