title: Assessing the impact of dietary habits on health-related quality of life requires contextual measurement tools.
abstract: The increase of non-communicable diseases at all ages has fostered the general concern for sustaining population health worldwide. Unhealthy lifestyles and dietary habits impacting physical and psycho-social health are well known risk factors for developing life threatening diseases. Identifying the determinants of quality of life is an important task from a Public Health perspective. Consumer-Reported Outcome measures of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) are becoming increasingly necessary and relevant in the field of nutrition. However, quality of life questionnaires are seldom used in the nutrition field. We conducted a scientific literature search to find out the questionnaires used to determine the association between dietary habits and quality of life. A total of 13 studies were eligible for inclusion. Across these studies the short form-36, a generic (non-disease specific) HRQoL measurement instrument was the most widely used. However, generic measures may have limited content validity in the context of dietary habits interventions. We recommend additional contextual diet-specific HRQoL measures are also needed for evaluating the impact of diet habits on daily life functioning and well-being.
authors.affiliation: Nutrition Research Group, Research Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria , Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain ; Ciber Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III , Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ruano-Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Nutrition Research Group, Research Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria , Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain ; Ciber Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III , Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Lluis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Serra-Majem
authors.affiliation: Pharmed, Université Libre de Bruxelles , Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dubois
keywords: dietary habits; general population; health outcome measures; quality of life; review