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Design and development of an instrument to measure overall lifestyle habits for epidemiological research: the Mediterranean Lifestyle (MEDLIFE) index

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2014

Mercedes Sotos-Prieto*
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Atherothrombosis, and Imaging, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), 28029 Madrid, Spain International SHE Foundation, 08037 Barcelona, Spain
Belén Moreno-Franco
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Psychiatry and Dermatology, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
Jose M Ordovás
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Atherothrombosis, and Imaging, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), 28029 Madrid, Spain Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory, Jean Mayer–USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA
Montse León
Affiliation:
Cardiovascular Research Unit, Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud (I+CS), Zaragoza, Spain
Jose A Casasnovas
Affiliation:
Cardiovascular Research Unit, Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud (I+CS), Zaragoza, Spain
Jose L Peñalvo
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Atherothrombosis, and Imaging, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), 28029 Madrid, Spain
*
Corresponding author: Email msotos@externo.cnic.es
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Abstract

Objective

To design and develop a questionnaire that can account for an individual’s adherence to a Mediterranean lifestyle including the assessment of diet and physical activity patterns, as well as social interaction.

Design

The Mediterranean Lifestyle (MEDLIFE) index was created based on the current Spanish Mediterranean food guide pyramid. MEDLIFE is a twenty-eight-item derived index consisting of questions about food consumption (fifteen items), traditional Mediterranean dietary habits (seven items) and physical activity, rest and social interaction habits (six items). Linear regression models and Spearman rank correlation were fitted to assess content validity and internal consistency.

Setting

A subset of participants in the Aragon Workers’ Health Study cohort (Zaragoza, Spain) provided the data for development of MEDLIFE.

Subjects

Participants (n 988) of the Aragon Workers’ Health Study cohort in Spain.

Results

Mean MEDLIFE score was 11·3 (sd 2·6; range: 0–28), and the quintile distribution of MEDLIFE score showed a significant association with each of the individual items as well as with specific nutrients and lifestyle indicators (intra-validity). We also quantified MEDLIFE correspondence with previously reported diet quality indices and found significant correlations (ρ range: 0·44–0·53; P<0·001) for the Alternate Healthy Eating Index, the Alternate Mediterranean Diet Index and Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener.

Conclusions

MEDLIFE is the first index to include an overall assessment of lifestyle habits. It is expected to be a more holistic tool to measure adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle in epidemiological studies.

Information

Type
Research Papers
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2014 
Figure 0

Table 1 Description of the Mediterranean Lifestyle (MEDLIFE) index, score distributions and correlations among a subset of participants (n 988) in the Aragon Workers’ Health Study (AWHS) cohort (Zaragoza, Spain)

Figure 1

Table 2 Baseline characteristics across quintiles of the Mediterranean Lifestyle (MEDLIFE) index among a subset of participants (n 988) in the Aragon Workers’ Health Study (AWHS) cohort (Zaragoza, Spain)

Figure 2

Table 3 Sex-, age- and energy-adjusted mean intakes of overall components of the Mediterranean Lifestyle (MEDLIFE) index according to quintile distribution of the MEDLIFE index among a subset of participants (n 988) in the Aragon Workers’ Health Study (AWHS) cohort (Zaragoza, Spain)

Figure 3

Table 4 Sex-, age- and energy-adjusted mean intakes of selected daily nutrients known to be related to food groups that constitute the Mediterranean Lifestyle (MEDLIFE) index according to quintile distribution of the MEDLIFE index among a subset of participants (n 988) in the Aragon Workers’ Health Study (AWHS) cohort (Zaragoza, Spain)

Figure 4

Table 5 Spearman’s correlation coefficients among diet quality scores from the FFQ completed by a subset of participants (n 988) in the Aragon Workers’ Health Study (AWHS) cohort (Zaragoza, Spain)

Supplementary material: PDF

Sotos-Prieto Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

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Tables S1-S3

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