title: [Dietary variety and diversity of Spanish children: Four Provinces Study].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Diet variety is claimed for ensuring a healthy eating. Our objective was to analyze the relationship between the variety and diversity of the diet and its nutritional quality among Spanish children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study where information on food and nutrition was obtained through a food frequency questionnaire. The sample included 1,112 children aged 6-7 years from 4 cities. Children were selected by random cluster-sampling in schools and stratified by sex and socioeconomic level. We calculated a diet variety index (DVI)--count of food items--and a diet diversity index (DDI)--count of food groups. To measure the overall diet quality, the Healthy Eating Index (HEI-f) was used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The percentage of children eating less than one daily food serving varied between 0% for the grain and 11.3% for the fruit groups. Diet variety and diversity were positively associated with the intake of fiber, vitamines B6 and E and folic acid, and the percentage of caloric intake resulting from polyinsaturated fatty acids and carbohydrates. In contrast, intakes of lipis and saturated fatty acids, vitamine C, sodium and calcium were all negatively associated with diet variety and diversity. Although both DVI and DDI were possitively associated with the HEI-f, the results from a regression model showed that it was only DDI that contributed significantly to the model fitting (p < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results support the goodness of a varied diet that includes ingredients from different food groups and, at the same time, maintains the energy energy within recomended levels.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo. Madrid. Spain. mroyo@iscii.es
authors.forename: Miguel Angel
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Royo-Bordonada
authors.forename: Lydia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gorgojo
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Oya
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Garcés
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Artalejo
authors.forename: Ramón
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rubio
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: del Barrio
authors.forename: José María
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Martín-Moreno
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet; D002149:Energy Intake; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires