HuSKY: a healthy nutrition score based on food intake of children and adolescents in Germany.
For many epidemiological questions an overall indicator of healthy nutrition can be useful. Based on the data from the FFQ of the German Health Interview and Examination Study for children and adolescents (KiGGS) we developed a healthy nutrition score based on a comparison with current recommendations for children and adolescents. We observed independent and statistically significant relationships between the nutrition score and age, sex, socio-economic status, immigration background, level of urbanisation and residence in former East v. former West Germany. Furthermore, the nutrition score was statistically significantly related to serum concentrations of homocysteine (inverse association) and folate (positive associations). The construction of a healthy nutrition score appears to be useful for several reasons. For instance, our score can be used to summarise an abundance of dietary information to a single measure, to get an overall impression of diets of individuals or groups, which can be useful to detect certain risk groups.
Kleiser
Christina
C
Robert Koch Institute, Department of Epidemiology and Health Reporting, Seestrasse 10, D-13353 Berlin, Germany. KleiserC@rki.de
Mensink
Gert B M
GB
Scheidt-Nave
Christa
C
Kurth
Bärbel-Maria
BM
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004435:Eating; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005492:Folic Acid / Q000097:blood; D005859:Germany, East; D005860:Germany, West; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006710:Homocysteine / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012426:Russia / Q000208:ethnology; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey / Q000208:ethnology
D006710:Homocysteine; D005492:Folic Acid