Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of diet quality indices in predicting obesity and abdominal obesity in a population in nutrition transition.
Methods: This study explored the association of the Mediterranean Diet Scale (MDS), Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI-2005), and Diet Quality Index-International (DQI-I) with body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) in a cross-sectional study after 6.7 years of follow-up in the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS) population.
Results: Out of 192 subjects who had BMI < 25kg/m(2) and of 283 subjects who were free of abdominal obesity at baseline, 39.6% developed overweight and obesity and 43.1% developed abdominal obesity, respectively during 6.7 years of follow-up in the study population. In cross-sectional analysis, after adjusting for age, sex, energy intake, physical activity and smoking status, multivariate analysis of covariance did not show any significant results regarding the relation of the diet quality indices, BMI and WC. According to follow-up analysis, none of the indices had significant associations with BMI and WC after adjustments for confounders and baseline values of BMI and WC.
Conclusion: Adherence to MDS, HEI-2005, and DQI-I could not predict BMI and WC in Iranian participants after 6.7 years of follow-up.