The impact of socioeconomic and environmental determinants on Mediterranean diet adherence: a municipal-level spatial analysis in Athens metropolitan area, Greece

Participant Characteristics Associated with High Responsiveness to Personalized Healthy Food Incentives: a Secondary Analysis of the Randomized Controlled Crossover Smart Cart Study

BACKGROUND

Personalized dietary behavioral interventions could be enhanced by understanding factors accounting for individual variability in dietary decisions.

OBJECTIVE

This study was a secondary analysis of the Smart Cart randomized controlled trial to determine whether participant characteristics predicted high responsiveness to personalized grocery incentives for purchasing healthy food.

METHODS

This secondary analysis of a 9-mo crossover study included 192 regular shoppers (86%) from a Rhode Island supermarket. To analyze whether health, behavioral, and/or sociodemographic characteristics predicted responsiveness to a personalized grocery incentive intervention, participants were divided into 3 categories [high (n = 47), moderate (n = 50), and unresponsive (n = 95)] based on percentage changes in their Grocery Purchase Quality Index scores during the intervention versus control period calculated from sales data. We tested whether participant characteristics, including individual, household, and intervention-related factors, differed across responsiveness groups using ANOVA and whether they predicted the likelihood of being high responsive versus unresponsive or moderate responsive using logistic regression.

RESULTS

Participants had a mean (SD) age of 56.0 (13.8) y and were 89% female. Education, self-reported BMI, income, diet-related medical condition, food insecurity, cooking adequacy, and value consciousness differed across responsiveness categories (P < 0.1). High versus moderate and unresponsive participants increased their percentage of spending on targeted foods (P < 0.0001) and purchased fewer unique items (P = 0.01). In multinomial adjusted models, the odds of being high versus unresponsive or moderate responsive were lower for participants with a BMI (in kg/m2) <25 versus ≥25 (OR: 0.41; 95% CI: 0.19, 0.90) and higher with a diet-related medical condition present (OR: 3.75; 95% CI: 1.20, 11.8). Other characteristics were not associated with responsiveness.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings demonstrated that a BMI ≥25 and having a diet-related medical condition within the household predicted high responsiveness to a personalized grocery purchasing intervention, suggesting that personalized dietary interventions may be particularly effective for households with higher health risk. This trial is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03748056.

Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet: Impact of Geographical Location of the Observations

The Mediterranean diet has emerged as a comprehensive lifestyle, including specific foods and meal composition and a set of behavioural and social features. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet has been shown to promote health and reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases. The actual implementation of the Mediterranean diet is affected by several sociocultural factors as well as geographical components. Indeed, the geographical location, such as a specific country or different areas in a country and specific latitude and climate, appears to be an important factor that may strongly affect the implementation of the Mediterranean diet or some of its principles as well as the adherence to it. Another dynamic component affecting personal nutritional choices, also regarding adherence to the Mediterranean diet and its principles, is the individual life-long trajectory of food preference and nutrition habits and awareness. In this review, we discuss the current evidence on the impact of geographical location on adherence to the Mediterranean diet.

Today’s Mediterranean Diet in Greece: Findings from the National Health and Nutrition Survey—HYDRIA (2013–2014)

Background: This study aimed to investigate the food and macronutrient intake of the population in Greece and evaluate its adherence to the Greek traditional Mediterranean diet. Methods: Adults over 18 years old (n = 4011) were included from the 2013–2014 National Health and Nutrition survey—HYDRIA. Dietary intake was collected using two 24-h recall interviews and a nonquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Macronutrient intakes were calculated using an updated version of the Greek FCT. Results: Only 28.3% of the adult population had high adherence to the Greek traditional Mediterranean diet, with a higher percentage (39.7%) observed for participants over 65 years compared to those under 65 years (25.5%). Differences in adherence to the MD were observed among the four geographical regions in Greece. Younger adults had a higher intake of meat, cereals, alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, and sugar products than older individuals who consumed more vegetables, fruits, legumes, dairy, fish, and lipids (mainly from olive oil). Adults do not meet the international dietary recommendations for the intake of several foods and macronutrients. Conclusions: The adult Greek population, especially younger people, has headed away from the Greek traditional Mediterranean diet. These observations indicate potential detrimental consequences in terms of morbidity and mortality.

The relationship of the built and food environments with the metabolic syndrome in the Athens metropolitan area: a sex-stratified spatial analysis in the context of the ATTICA epidemiological study

PURPOSE

The built and food environments are widely acknowledged to play an important role in defining human health by influencing, among others, behaviors such as nutrition habits and physical activities. The aim of this study was to identify the spatial variability of the sex-specific prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its environmental determinants in the Athens metropolitan area.

METHODS

Data on the prevalence of the MetS were provided by the ATTICA epidemiological study for 2749 participants, with complete data for geographical identification (1375 women [44 years old {SD = 14 years}] and 1374 men [45 years old {SD = 13 years}]), while socioeconomic, demographic, and environmental characteristics were provided by official national and international databases.

RESULTS

Approximately 20% of the people residing in the study area were diagnosed with MetS, with its prevalence being almost two times higher in men compared to women. Areas more extensively covered by green urban spaces and sports facilities were shown to have a lower prevalence of MetS, while greater density and availability of supermarkets and street markets were inversely related to MetS prevalence in both sexes. In addition, the present analysis revealed that the beneficial role of the built environment's characteristics on MetS prevalence was significantly stronger in the male population, while the preventive effect of the food environment's characteristics was almost 1.5 times stronger in the female population CONCLUSION: Although individualized prevention and treatment approaches are necessary to decrease the burden of MetS, environmental modifications that promote healthy behaviors represent an essential health approach.