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Innovative Strategies, Methods and Tools for Dietary Assessment in Public Health

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A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutritional Epidemiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2022) | Viewed by 14172

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Dr. Martina Barchitta

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Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Advanced Technologies “G.F. Ingrassia”, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Interests: nutritional epidemiology; molecular epidemiology; public health; mediterranean diet; nutrigenetics; nutrigenomics; nutriepigenomics
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Dear Colleagues,

Innovative dietary assessment tools and methods are needed in large-scale epidemiological studies to produce the best estimates of individual intake and to better address public health strategies. The goal of this Special Issue, entitled “Innovative Strategies, Methods, and Tools For Dietary Assessment in Public Health”, is to focus on the importance of new dietary assessment approaches to provide more accurate estimates of diet in epidemiological studies.

The Special Issue welcomes the submission of original research, narrative reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses to provide public health professionals with a widespread, clear and updated body of evidence on innovative approaches to better investigate the diet–health relationship.

Prof. Dr. Martina Barchitta
Guest Editor

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Keywords

advanced methodology
statistical strategies
artificial intelligence
m-health
e-health
nutritional epidemiology

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 608 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Improving Nutrition Knowledge and Skills by the Innovative Education Program MaestraNatura in Middle School Students of Italy

by Rosaria Varì, Antonio d’Amore, Annalisa Silenzi, Flavia Chiarotti, Sara Del Papa, Claudio Giovannini, Beatrice Scazzocchio and Roberta Masella

Nutrients 2022, 14(10), 2037; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nu14102037 - 12 May 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2206

Abstract

Promoting a healthy diet, mainly in youths, is the most effective action to prevent and fight dietary excesses and nutritional imbalance in the population. MaestraNatura (MN) is an innovative nutritional education program aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle in first-level secondary school students. The study evaluated the effectiveness of the MN program in improving knowledge in students following the MN program (MN group) with respect to a control group (CO group) undergoing a “traditional” nutritional education path. To this end, the nutrition knowledge of the two groups was assessed by three multi-choice questionnaires. The results showed a significant improvement in knowledge (p < 0.001) in the MN group with respect to the CO group for all the questionnaires. Furthermore, the students’ ability to transfer the principles of nutrition guidelines to the real context of daily meals was determined by asking the MN group to create a weekly food plan before (T0) and after (T1) the completion of the MN program. The MN group demonstrated improved performance in organizing the weekly menu plan at T1 with respect to T0 (p = 0.005). In conclusion, the MN nutritional education program appears to be an effective tool for improving knowledge and skills on nutritional issues, especially in those students with a lower starting level of knowledge and ability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Strategies, Methods and Tools for Dietary Assessment in Public Health)

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15 pages, 1811 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Development of a Web-App for the Ecological Momentary Assessment of Dietary Habits among College Students: The HEALTHY-UNICT Project

by Martina Barchitta, Andrea Maugeri, Giuliana Favara, Roberta Magnano San Lio, Paolo Marco Riela, Luca Guarnera, Sebastiano Battiato and Antonella Agodi

Nutrients 2022, 14(2), 330; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nu14020330 - 13 Jan 2022

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3247

Abstract

The transition from adolescence to adulthood is a critical period for the development of healthy behaviors. Yet, it is often characterized by unhealthy food choices. Considering the current pandemic scenario, it is also essential to assess the effects of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) on lifestyles and diet, especially among young people. However, the assessment of dietary habits and their determinants is a complex issue that requires innovative approaches and tools, such as those based on the ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Here, we describe the first phases of the “HEALTHY-UNICT” project, which aimed to develop and validate a web-app for the EMA of dietary data among students from the University of Catania, Italy. The pilot study included 138 students (mean age 24 years, SD = 4.2; 75.4% women), who used the web-app for a week before filling out a food frequency questionnaire with validation purposes. Dietary data obtained through the two tools showed moderate correlations, with the lowest value for butter and margarine and the highest for pizza (Spearman’s correlation coefficients of 0.202 and 0.699, respectively). According to the cross-classification analysis, the percentage of students classified into the same quartile ranged from 36.9% for vegetable oil to 58.1% for pizza. In line with these findings, the weighted-kappa values ranged from 0.15 for vegetable oil to 0.67 for pizza, and most food categories showed values above 0.4. This web-app showed good usability among students, assessed through a 19-item usability scale. Moreover, the web-app also had the potential to evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ behaviors and emotions, showing a moderate impact on sedentary activities, level of stress, and depression. These findings, although interesting, might be confirmed by the next phases of the HEALTHY-UNICT project, which aims to characterize lifestyles, dietary habits, and their relationship with anthropometric measures and emotions in a larger sample of students. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Strategies, Methods and Tools for Dietary Assessment in Public Health)

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10 pages, 1045 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Wikipedia, Google Trends and Diet: Assessment of Temporal Trends in the Internet Users’ Searches in Italy before and during COVID-19 Pandemic

by Daniele Nucci, Omar Enzo Santangelo, Mariateresa Nardi, Sandro Provenzano and Vincenza Gianfredi

Nutrients 2021, 13(11), 3683; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nu13113683 - 20 Oct 2021

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4271

Abstract

We obtained data from Google Trends and Wikipedia in order to assess whether an analysis of Internet searches could provide information on the Internet users’ behaviour/interest in diets. Differences in seasonality, year and before/during COVID-19 pandemic were assessed. From Wikipedia, we extracted the number of times a page is viewed by users, aggregated on monthly and seasonal bases. We also used Google Trends to evaluate the frequency of the users’ web searches. The Mediterranean diet was the most frequently (33.9%), followed by the pescatarian diet (9.0%). Statistically, significant seasonal differences were found for the Mediterranean, vegetarian, Atkins, Scarsdale, and zone diets and pescetarianism. The most commonly searched diet and consequent diet-related queries on Google resulted to be: Dukan diet, Dukan and weight loss. Ketogenic, FODMAP and intermittent fasting diets were statistically more frequently searched during the pandemic compared with before. Our data show a different trend of searches based on the seasonality, year and the pandemic. These data could be useful for scientists, practitioners and policy makers because they can inform educational campaigns via the Internet, especially in periods when the population is more receptive. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Strategies, Methods and Tools for Dietary Assessment in Public Health)

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Review

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11 pages, 289 KiB

Open AccessReview

Dietary Assessment Tools and Metabolic Syndrome: Is It Time to Change the Focus?

by Helen Chauhan, Regina Belski, Eleanor Bryant and Matthew Cooke

Nutrients 2022, 14(8), 1557; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nu14081557 - 08 Apr 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3618

Abstract

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is associated with a range of chronic diseases, for which lifestyle interventions are considered the cornerstone of treatment. Dietary interventions have primarily focused on weight reduction, usually via energy restricted diets. While this strategy can improve insulin sensitivity and other health markers, weight loss alone is not always effective in addressing all risk factors associated with MS. Previous studies have identified diet quality as a key factor in reducing the risk of MS independent of weight loss. Additionally, supporting evidence for the use of novel strategies such as carbohydrate restriction and modifying the frequency and timing of meals is growing. It is well established that dietary assessment tools capable of identifying dietary patterns known to increase the risk of MS are essential for the development of personalised, targeted diet and lifestyle advice. The American Heart Association (AHA) recently evaluated the latest in a variety of assessment tools, recommending three that demonstrate the highest evidence-based and clinical relevance. However, such tools may not assess and thus identify all dietary and eating patterns associated with MS development and treatment, especially those which are new and emerging. This paper offers a review of current dietary assessment tools recommended for use by the AHA to assess dietary and eating patterns associated with MS development. We discuss how these recommendations align with recent and novel evidence on the benefits of restricting ultra-processed food and refined carbohydrates and modifying timing and frequency of meals. Finally, we provide recommendations for future redevelopment of these tools to be deployed in health care settings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Strategies, Methods and Tools for Dietary Assessment in Public Health)

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