Search Results (5)

Background/Objectives: Obesity represents a growing public health concern worldwide. Chrononutrition, a research field examining the timing and regularity of food intake, has been shown in animal models to influence body weight regulation and obesity-related outcomes. Previous research has also explored the association between chrononutrition information and BMI. Using INRAN-SCAI 2005/2006 adult nutrition data based on 3-day diet diaries (n = 2312), this study aims to assess whether chrononutritional information on the distribution of energy intake during the day is able to improve prediction of overweight status (BMI > 25 kg/m²), compared to information on energy from the whole day alone. Methods: This research investigates it using logistic regression and random forest models. For both types of models, three different specifications were compared: a model trained on the mean and irregularity of calorie intake over 3 days for 6 day-time intervals (MI6); a model trained on repeated measures over 3 days of calorie intake from the same 6 time intervals (RM); and a model trained on mean and irregularity of calorie intake over 3 days for the whole day (MID). The performance of the models was compared using risk prediction metrics and ROC curves. Results: When including additional demographic and behavioural predictors beside the energy variables, the results only showed a statistically significant difference in the performance of the logistic regression models if they were trained and tested on the same data. The models trained using chrononutrition information performed better, but the difference in diagnostic accuracy was very small (AUC = 0.7909 for MI6, p = 0.0086; 0.7923 for RM compared to 0.7850 for MID, p = 0.0072) and possibly attributable to overfitting, as it was no longer significant in the comparison within a testing set (70% training and 30% testing samples). For the random forest models, no significant difference was found. In the same models including only the energy variables, the improved performance of MI6 and RM was significantly better than for MID also in the test set (respectively, p = 0.0001 and p = 0.0002), and the gap in AUCs became substantial (AUC = 0.622 for MI6, 0.618 for RM and 0.507 for MID), indicating that socio-demographic and behavioural variables encapsulate information on energy intake by time of the day. Typical under-reporting bias present in nutritional epidemiology and the cross-sectional nature of the sample based on 3-day diaries may have affected these results, although use of diet diaries should minimize recall bias. Conclusions: In conclusion, the impact on health of timing and regularity of calorie intake in the day may act through other mechanisms than via overweight and may be captured by other demographic and behavioural variables; larger and prospective longitudinal studies are warranted to thoroughly investigate the added value of time-of-day information. Full article

Background and Objectives: Late food intake has been linked to weight gain while early meals have been associated with weight loss and maintenance. However, the impact of temporal (diurnal) eating patterns summarising the time of food intake throughout the day and the eating time irregularity across surveyed days has been less investigated. INRAN-SCAI is a cross-sectional nutrition survey conducted in 2005–2006 in a representative sample of the Italian population, collecting diet diaries over 3 days, including a questionnaire with socio-demographic and anthropometric variables. We aimed to characterise diurnal and irregularity eating patterns (DIEPs) and investigate their association with BMI/obesity in Italian adults (18–64 ys). Methods: We derived the DIEPs by Principal Component Analysis (with covariance matrix) jointly on indices of average and irregularity of energy intake using the reduced six time intervals corresponding to common eating time slots in Italy. The first five DIEPs explained 93% of the total variance, with the first DIEP score increasing with energy intake at main meals. A mixed-effect model with random intercept accounting for the correlation within household (ICC) was applied including only adults (complete case analysis n = 2022), with BMI as outcome, the main DIEPs as exposures and a set of confounders identified by a causal diagram. Results: The model resulted in a positive association of BMI with the first DEP (b = 0.75 per 100% score, p = 0.009; ICC = 0.195, p < 0.0001). A positive significant association also resulted between BMI and the third DIEP (10% variance) whose score increased with energy intake at snack times outside main meals (b = 0.89 per 100% score, p = 0.013) and with the fifth DIEP (6.4% variance), which mainly captured food intake at night and irregularity of intake at night (b = 0.34 per 100% score, p = 0.028). Discussion: Despite the limitations of a cross-sectional design, this study indicates that in the Italian adult population BMI tended to increase not only with large energy intake at main meals and at snack times but also with energy intake and irregularity of intake at night. This is in line with recent findings in the British population, indicating the relevance of surveying and modifying DIEPs, beside average daily intake, for obesity management. Full article

Physical activity and protein intake are associated with ageing-related outcomes, including loss of muscle strength and functional decline, so may contribute to strategies to improve healthy ageing. We investigated the cross-sectional associations between physical activity or sedentary behaviour and protein intake patterns in community-dwelling older adults across five countries. Self-reported physical activity and dietary intake data were obtained from two cohort studies (Newcastle 85+ Study, UK; LiLACS, New Zealand Māori and Non-Māori) and three national food consumption surveys (DNFCS, The Netherlands; FINDIET, Finland; INRAN-SCAI, Italy). Associations between physical activity and total protein intake, number of eating occasions providing protein, number of meals with specified protein thresholds, and protein intake distribution over the day (calculated as a coefficient of variance) were assessed by regression and repeated measures ANOVA models adjusting for covariates. Greater physical activity was associated with higher total protein intake and more eating occasions containing protein, although associations were mostly explained by higher energy intake. Comparable associations were observed for sedentary behaviour in older adults in Italy. Evidence for older people with higher physical activity or less sedentary behaviour achieving more meals with specified protein levels was mixed across the five countries. A skewed protein distribution was observed, with most protein consumed at midday and evening meals without significant differences between physical activity or sedentary behaviour levels. Findings from this multi-study analysis indicate there is little evidence that total protein and protein intake patterns, irrespective of energy intake, differ by physical activity or sedentary behaviour levels in older adults. Full article

Background: Fluid and water intake have received limited attention in epidemiological studies. The aim of this study was to compare the average daily consumption of foods and beverages in adults of selective samples of the European Union (EU) population in order to understand the contribution of these to the total water intake (TWI), evaluate if the EU adult population consumes adequate amounts of total water (TW) according to the current guidelines, and to illustrate the real water intake in Europe. Methods: Three national European dietary surveys have been selected: Spain used the Anthropometry, Intake, and Energy Balance Study (ANIBES) population database, Italy analyzed data from the Italian National Food Consumption Survey (INRAN-SCAI 2005-06), and French data came from the NutriNet-Santé database. Mean daily consumption was used to compare between individuals. TWI was compared with European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reference values for adult men and women. Results: On average, in Spain, TWI was 1.7 L (SE 22.9) for men and 1.6 L (SE 19.4) for women; Italy recorded 1.7 L (SE 16.9) for men and 1.7 L (SE 14.1) for women; and France recorded 2.3 L (SE 4.7) for men and 2.1 L (SE 2.4) for women. With the exception of women in France, neither men nor women consumed sufficient amounts of water according to EFSA reference values. Conclusions: This study highlights the need to formulate appropriate health and nutrition policies to increase TWI in the EU population. The future of beverage intake assessment requires the use of new instruments, techniques, and the application of the new available technologies. Full article

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate total water intake (TWI) from water, beverages and foods among Italian adults and the elderly. Methods: Data of 2607 adults and the elderly, aged 18–75 years from the last national food consumption survey, INRAN-SCAI 2005-06, were used to evaluate the TWI. The INRAN-SCAI 2005-06 survey was conducted on a representative sample of 3323 individuals aged 0.1 to 97.7 years. A 3-day semi-structured diary was used for participants to record the consumption of all foods, beverages and nutritional supplements. Results: On average, TWI was 1.8 L for men and 1.7 L for women. More than 75% of women and 90% of men did not comply with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Adequate Intake. The contribution of beverages to the total energy intake (EI) was 6% for the total sample. Water was the most consumed beverage, followed by alcoholic beverages for men and hot beverages for women. Conclusion: According to the present results, adults and elderly Italians do not reach the adequate intake for water as suggested by the EFSA and by the national reference level of nutrient and energy intake. Data on water consumption should also be analyzed in single socio-demographic groups in order to identify sub-groups of the population that need more attention and to plan more targeted interventions. Full article