title: The Diet-Lifestyle Index evaluating the quality of eating and lifestyle behaviours in relation to the prevalence of overweight/obesity in adolescents.
abstract: We sought to develop an index that incorporated various dietary and lifestyle behaviours that are associated with overweight/obesity status in adolescents. We assigned discrete scores into each component of the proposed index. The Diet-Lifestyle Index ranged from 11 to 57. We examined the accuracy of the index in relation to adolescents' body mass status using a sample of 2,008 students. The mean score of the index was 30.9+/-5.2 for boys and 31.4+/-4.7 for girls. The index was inversely associated with the odds of being obese/overweight (odds ratio = 0.93, 95% confidence interval=0.90-0.96), after adjusting for age and gender. Particularly, an 11/57-unit increase of the index was associated with a 6% and 9% decrease in the odds of being overweight/obesity in boys and girls, respectively (P<0.001). Thus, the proposed Diet-Lifestyle Index could be a useful tool in a primary healthcare setting for preventing obesity in adolescence.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Human Nutrition, Department of Food Science and Technology, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece. renakst@yahoo.gr
authors.forename: Rena I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Kosti
authors.forename: Demosthenes B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Panagiotakos
authors.forename: Anargiros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mariolis
authors.forename: Antonis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zampelas
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Athanasopoulos
authors.forename: Yiannis
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tountas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D001835:Body Weight; D004032:Diet / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires