title: Scale for assessing the quality of Mexican adults' mealtime habits.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To construct a scale for assessing the quality of mealtime habits in a sample of urban Mexican adults, computing the contribution of a set of advisable and unadvisable mealtime habits.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed an exploratory factor analysis among 7 472 adults participating in the baseline assessment of the Health Workers Cohort Study, to assess the mealtime habits quality. Likelihood ratio test for difference of two probabilities and test for the difference of two means were used to identify differences between low and high categories of the Mealtime Habits Quality Scale (MHQS) across variables of interest.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants with the top quality of mealtime habits showed lower rates of overweight, obesity, abdominal obesity, and elevated body fat. They were also more adherent to a prudent dietary pattern than a western dietary pattern, and consumed more fruits and vegetables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Anthropometric and dietary variables differed across MHQS categories. However, further validation of the scale, and assessment of their ability to predict weight gain or related diseases are needed, using prospective and intervention studies.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire ERIC, Université Lyon 1 et Lyon 2, France.
authors.forename: Darina
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dosamantes-Carrasco
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Méndez-Hernández
authors.forename: Edgar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Denova-Gutiérrez
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lamure
authors.forename: Leo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Morales
authors.forename: Juan O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Talavera
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Espinosa
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Salmerón
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult