Sammanfattning
Background: The Swedish board for health and social welfare (SoS) has presented four
questions on dietary
habits as indicators of adherence to dietary recommendations. However, these questions have not
been
evaluated.
Objective: To evaluate if four questions on dietary habits correlate with dietary intake assessed by
food
records.
Design: A total of 279 medical and nursing students, 170 women and 109 men, completed four
questions on
usual consumption frequency of vegetables, fruits, fish, and sweets. Depending on scoring from 0 to
12 points,
subjects were classified as having low (04 points), average (58 points), or high (912 points)
adherence to
dietary recommendations as proposed by SoS. Nutrient intake was calculated from 3-day food
records. Mean
dietary intake, expressed per 10 MJ of fibre, ascorbic acid, folate, vitamin D, sucrose, fish, and fruits
and
vegetables, was analysed for each group and differences assessed by ANOVA.
Results: Energy intake was 11.893.0 MJ in male and 8.592.2 MJ in female students. Most students,
64%,
were classified as average adherers to dietary recommendations, whereas only 6% were classified
as low and
30% as high. Dietary intake of fibre, ascorbic acid, and folate was significantly higher in the high
adherence
group compared to both the other groups (pB0.01), but vitamin D significantly so only compared to
the
average group (p0.002). Intake of fruits and vegetables was significantly different between all
groups
(pB0.003), with increasing amounts with increasing adherence. The low adherence group had higher
intake
of sucrose than the other groups (pB0.005). Median fish intake was nil in the low and average
adherence
groups, with significant difference between high and average adherence groups (p0.001).
Conclusions: Four questions on the consumption frequency of vegetables, fruits, fish, and sweets
correlate well
with the dietary intake of fibre, ascorbic acid, folate, vitamin D, fish, sucrose, and fruits and
vegetables as
assessed by 3-day food records in health-conscious medical and nursing students.