title: Dietary patterns in an ethnoculturally diverse population of young Canadian adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Dietary patterns of food consumption were investigated among young urban Toronto adults, including men and women from different ethnocultural groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a cross-sectional analysis among 1153 adults aged 20 to 29 years, from the Toronto Nutrigenomics and Health Study. Principal components analysis of food intake scores was used to identify food consumption patterns. Logistic regression, analysis of variance, and t-tests were used to test for differences in dietary patterns between ethnocultural groups and between men and women. Partial correlations were used to investigate the relationship between patterns and nutrient intake.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three predominant patterns were identified and termed "prudent," "Western," and "Eastern" patterns. Caucasians had significantly higher prudent pattern scores than did Asians and South Asians, while Asians had significantly higher Eastern pattern scores than did other ethnocultural groups (p<0.01). Women had higher prudent pattern scores (odds ratio [OR]=4.31, 95% confidence interval [CI]=3.11-5.96) and lower Western pattern scores (OR=0.62, 95% CI=0.45-0.84) than did men. Dietary pattern scores were correlated with nutrient and energy intakes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed distinct dietary patterns in this population of young adults. These dietary patterns varied significantly between ethnocultural groups and between men and women. The patterns were associated with nutrient intake levels; this association may have important public health implications.
authors: Department of Nutritional Sciences and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON.
authors: Darren R
authors: DR
authors: Brenner
authors: Beatrice A
authors: BA
authors: Boucher
authors: Nancy
authors: N
authors: Kreiger
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Jenkins
authors: Ahmed
authors: A
authors: El-Sohemy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000886:Anthropometry; D044466:Asian People; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000208:ethnology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D016017:Odds Ratio; D009864:Ontario; D011634:Public Health; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult