Educational level and living arrangements are associated with dietary intake of red meat and fruit/vegetables: A Danish cross-sectional study

Impact of the Family Environment on the Frequency of Animal-Based Product Consumption in School-Aged Children in Central Poland

Animal-sourced foods (ASFs) have a high nutritional value, which makes them important elements of young people's diets. Several environmental factors might affect the dietary habits of children and adolescents, and their identification seems to be a principal reason to maintain their healthy eating practice. Thus, we aimed to investigate selected environmental factors (a place of residence, net income, mother's education level, number of siblings, and mother's BMI), which may be linked to the consumption frequency of ASFs among school-aged children. In total, 892 mothers of primary school children aged 7-14 years from central Poland took part in the anonymous and voluntary survey. The frequency of meat and meat product consumption was affected by the mother's education level, place of residence, and net income. Generally, meat was eaten more often by the city children (G = 0.178, p < 0.01) of better-educated mothers (G = 0.268, p < 0.001) and higher-income families (G = 0.209, p < 0.001). A higher level of education was linked to more frequent fish consumption but only in the younger group (G = 0.130, p < 0.05). The frequency of egg intake was positively associated with the maternal level of education (G = 0.185, p < 0.001), children's gender (girls > boys, G = 0.123, p < 0.05), and place of residence (city > village, G = 0.214, p < 0.001). In turn, the frequency of milk and dairy intake was related only to the place of residence (village > city, G = 0.97, p <0.05). It can be concluded that the mother's level of education is a key factor linked to the selected children's dietary habits. Thus, we believe that successful health education programs designed for young people should include the maternal capacity to interpret and adapt information into daily practice.

35 Years of health surveys in Denmark: a backbone of public health practice and research

Denmark has a 35-year history of monitoring health status in the general population through health surveys. In this commentary, we outline the development of health surveys in Denmark from the beginning in 1987 to the present time. We describe how the current systematic framework for the Danish National Health Survey (DNHS) developed. We discuss the methodological basis for the DNHS and describe its application in public health practice and research. Over the years, the DNHS has become an important part of the Danish public health environment. Challenges for the DNHS in the future are to adapt to new trends in public health and at the same time to be able to monitor important changes consistently over time.

Fipronil and its metabolites in human seminal plasma from Shijiazhuang, north China

Fipronil (FP) is an emerging insecticide which could induce reproductive toxicity in male rats at very low dosage, but the occurrence of FP and its transformation products (FPs) in human seminal plasma and their impacts on human semen quality have not been documented. In this study, FPs including FP, fipronil desulfinyl (FP-DES), fipronil sulfone (FP-SFO), fipronil amide (FP-AM), and fipronil sulfide (FP-SFI), were measured in seminal plasma samples (n = 200), which were collected from Shijiazhuang, north China. The cumulative concentration of FPs (ΣFPs), in the seminal plasma samples ranged from 0.003 to 0.180 ng/mL (median: 0.043 ng/mL). FP-SFO was the major target analyte (median: 0.040 ng/mL), accounting for approximately 42.3-100.0% of the ΣFPs. Significantly higher exposure levels of FPs were found in the overweight or obese group (≥25 kg/m²) vs. the normal BMI group (18.5-25 kg/m²) (ΣFPs: 0.047 vs. 0.033 ng/mL), never smoking group vs. current smoking group (ΣFPs: 0.057 vs. 0.037 ng/mL), and low sexual frequency group (<1 time/week) vs. high sexual frequency group (≥3 times/week) (ΣFPs: 0.048 vs. 0.030 ng/mL). No significant association between FPs and impaired semen quality parameter was found in this study. This is the first time to report FPs' occurrence in human seminal plasma and variations in their concentrations among people with different demographic and behavioral characteristics. Further studies on adverse effects of exposure to FPs on reproductive function are needed.

The Educational Gradient in Intake of Energy and Macronutrients in the General Adult and Elderly Population: The Tromsø Study 2015-2016

Worldwide, there are socioeconomic inequalities in health and diet. We studied the relationship between education and nutrient intake in 11,302 women and men aged 40-96 years who participated in the seventh survey of the population-based Tromsø Study (2015-2016), Norway (attendance 65%). Diet was assessed using a validated food-frequency questionnaire. We examined the association between education and intake of total energy and macronutrients by sex using linear and logistic regression models adjusted for age, body mass index, leisure time physical activity and smoking. The intake of macronutrients was compared with the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2012. There was a positive association between education and intake of fiber and alcohol, and a negative association between education and intake of total carbohydrates and added sugar in both women and men. Participants with long tertiary education had higher odds of being compliant with the recommended intake of fiber and protein and the maximum recommended level for added sugar and had lower odds of being compliant with the recommended intake of total carbohydrates and the maximum recommended level for alcohol, compared to participants with primary education. Overall, we found that participants with higher education were more compliant with the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2012.

Trends in the dietary patterns of Mexican adults by sociodemographic characteristics

Background

Sociodemographic characteristics are associated with the dietary patterns of populations. However, the direction of the association is not consistent among countries: it is contingent on the nutritional transition phase, level of economic development, cultural contexts and both the social and health policies prevailing in each country. The objective of this study was to identify the trends in dietary patterns observed in 2006, 2012 and 2016 among Mexican adults by sociodemographic characteristic.

Methods

To determine and compare dietary patterns, we performed a secondary analysis of dietary and sociodemographic data for adults 20–59 years old. Data were drawn from the 2006 and 2012 National Health and Nutrition Surveys (ENSANUTs) together with the 2016 Half-Way National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUTMC). To estimate the dietary patterns, we used an adapted version of the Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015) and a quantile-based regression model to compare the HEI medians by sociodemographic characteristic.

Results

From 2006 to 2016, the quality of the diet of Mexican adults scored under 50 points on a scale of 0 to 100, markedly below the maximum scores for the majority of HEI-2015 components. Diet quality varied according to age, sex, socioeconomic status (SES), area (urban/rural) and region of residence, with the highest quality observed among older individuals (within the 40–59 age group), women, people of lower SES and residents of rural areas, particularly in southern Mexico. Although this trend remained constant overall throughout 2006, 2012 and 2016, specific HEI-2015 components showed an opposite trend by sociodemographic strata.

Conclusion

The diet quality of Mexican adults was suboptimal from 2006 to 2016, with notorious disparities persisting over time among sociodemographic strata. Our results can serve as a basis for formulating recommendations on ways to improve the population diet, where those components diverging the most from adequate scores could be highlighted in public-health messages.

Is Cardiac Rehabilitation Equally Effective in Improving Dietary Intake in All Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease?

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the association between sociodemographic characteristics and changes in dietary intake in patients with ischemic heart disease who were following a cardiac rehabilitation program.

METHODS

Longitudinal study among patients with first-time admission to outpatient cardiac rehabilitation after ST-elevation myocardial infarction, non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction, unstable angina pectoris or stable angina pectoris. We used a validated self-administered food frequency questionnaire to assess the dietary intake before rehabilitation, post rehabilitation and 6 months after baseline. The intake was summarized into a fat and fish-fruit-vegetable score for both sexes. To assess the within-patient differences in dietary scores, a paired t-test was applied. Regression analyses were performed to assess the association between sociodemographic characteristics and changes in diet.

RESULTS

186 patients completed two measurements, 157 patients completed all three measurements. Fat and fish-fruit-vegetable scores increased statistically significantly and improvements remained statistically significant at follow-up. Fat scores increased less in employed men than in retired men (-11 (95% CI -17; -5)). Fish-fruit-vegetable scores increased less in men with a bachelor degree than in men with a vocational education (-8 (95% CI -13; -3)) as well as in retired women compared with employed women (-18 (95% CI -32; -4)).

CONCLUSIONS

Patients statistically significantly improved their dietary intake and improvements remained at follow-up. Dietary improvements were sensitive to marital status, living arrangements and employment status. Unemployed and retired women did not seem to improve their diet as much as employed women. Additional dietary intervention may become relevant in some patient groups defined by sociodemographic characteristics. (250).